SINGAPORE — With just about three months to go, the Lions’ 23-man squad that will feature at the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup is starting to take shape, as head coach V Sundramoorthy revealed yesterday that he had already decided on a “majority” of the players he intended to call up for the biennial tournament.

And it appears that those who have been named in the national squad for the team’s upcoming friendly against Bahrain on Thursday (Sept 1) will be the ones who will also feature in the Suzuki Cup.

However, Sundram was quick to insist that places are still up for grabs, but only if a particular player impressed in the final weeks of the S.League ahead of the start of the Suzuki Cup in November.

“You can take it that majority of these players here will be heading to the Suzuki Cup, and we will add on in certain positions if needed,” Sundram said during Monday’s (Aug 29) national team training session at Geylang field.

“We’ve more or less finalised the squad, but maybe we’ll add on a couple of others like Faris Ramli (injured) and a few other players who impress in the S.League in the next couple of months.

"It doesn’t matter how old they are, because age is just a number. As long as a player can perform on the pitch and achieve what I want, they’ll be donning the Singapore jersey.”

The Lions were handed a tough group for the Suzuki Cup, as they were drawn alongside defending champions Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. And Singapore’s friendly against Bahrain, who are ranked 126th in the world, 33 places ahead of Singapore, comes as part of the preparations for the tournament.

They are also scheduled to take on Hong Kong and arch-rivals Malaysia in two other friendlies in October.

After a mixed start to his reign — which includes a credible second-placed finish at the AYA Bank Cup in Myanmar, as well as losses to a Japanese university team and Cambodia — Sundram believes his charges are close to being ready for the Suzuki Cup.

“We did well in the recent AYA Bank Cup — we lost in extra-time, but it was a good start for me as a national coach,” said Sundram, 50.

“We missed a lot of players during the training tour (in Japan), but it was important to get exposure for the other (fringe) players so that we could take a closer look at them.

“We’ll be going to take on Bahrain with our main objective to better prepare the players for the Suzuki Cup. We’ll see how Bahrain play and we’ll plan for them tactically. We will keep it tight and make sure all the players understand our game plan.

“I’m just about three months into the job, but I think we’re more or less ready to go to the Suzuki Cup and do our best.”