Our worst showing in qualifiers so far - Fitzel

Malta may have reached the somewhat mundane target set by coach Dusan Fitzel of restricting Denmark to fewer than four goals in Saturday's 2010 World Cup qualifier but the Czech was anything but impressed.

Fitzel described Malta's showing at the Parken Stadium as their "worst" in this World Cup campaign so far, his dissatisfaction fuelled by the team's appalling shortage of scoring chances during the 3-0 defeat.

"Our performance was the worst so far in this qualifying campaign," Fitzel said.

"We played better against Portugal (0-4) and Albania (0-3)."

Going over the reasons that led to Malta being outclassed by the Danes, Fitzel was unequivocal in his criticism of what he perceived as a soft, casual approach by his players.

"If they (the players) carry the habits of their approach to Maltese football into internationals, they can't win nowhere and never," Fitzel remarked.

"If you play for fun, you will never stand a chance. At half-time, I told my players that they had to fight harder to improve."

After the modest heights attained by the national team in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, that saw Malta finish with a tally of five points, it looks as though the team's progress has hit a wall.

Fitzel offered a number of reasons for this decline.

"The opponents in this group are stronger than those of the Euros, the confidence of our team is down at the moment and the level of performance is also very low, he said.

"We haven't scored a goal in three matches but this is a problem for the whole team not just those who play in attack. I always say that we have to defend as a team and attack as a team but we haven't been doing that lately.

"Our defenders hesitate to go forward and that means that we have four players who are not supporting our attacking game.

"The problem is that they are afraid to commit mistakes."

Malta's uphill task on Saturday became steeper from the moment Luke Dimech's short clearance led to Soren Larsen putting the hosts ahead after 10 minutes.

"We gave away an early goal and that was a huge blow for us," Fitzel remarked.

"Our first half was full of errors but, at least, we managed to improve slightly after the break.

"It looks as if our team start to play better once they are 2-0 down.

"When I became coach of Malta (in January 2006), the team also suffered from this psychological block and now it looks like it has returned."

On Saturday, Fitzel deployed Ivan Woods as an advanced midfielder and switched Andrè Schembri to the left, changes that failed to leave the desired effect on Malta's attacking prowess.

Said Fitzel: "Woods is one of the few Maltese players who have been performing at a high level for Sliema Wanderers. I put him in midfield because he works hard and drops back to help in defence, something Michael Mifsud finds it hard to do.

"I thought Mifsud was our best option in attack because of his speed and movement, especially on the offside line, but it's difficult for him to play as a target man.

"In training, the team looked more comfortable with Woods and Gilbert Agius together in midfield. They are good friends as well and I thought that this would increase their level of understanding on the pitch.

"With regards to Schembri, I put him wide on the left because he's played there for Carl Zeiss Jena. Besides, we all know that we don't have many players in Maltese football who can play on the left side."

The Malta coach said he withdrew Schembri in the second half because he was struggling with a slight pelvis injury.

Asked whether he had considered promoting Hibs' winger Clayton Failla to the squad for this match, given his fine showings as a left-sided midfielder in the Premier League, Fitzel replied:

"I thought about calling Failla and I had also spoken to Mark Miller about it but after winning that player of the month prize, Failla's performances in the last two games were quite ordinary."

As attention shifts to Wednesday's home qualifier against Hungary, many expect Fitzel and the players to put Saturday's upset behind them and devote 100 per cent focus on the next game.

Fitzel believes that in these circumstances, the responsibility of motivating oneself for the test ahead lies with the players.

"It's not my job to motivate the players," Fitzel retorted.

"I think it's the players' duty to motivate themselves before an international match because they should be proud to play for their country."

Before Saturday's qualifier, Fitzel told The Times that he will be reviewing his position as Malta coach after the Denmark and Hungary qualifiers.

Malta's wretched performance at the Parken Stadium will only have added to Fitzel's unease but he insisted that he will stick to his plan of assessing the whole situation after the Hungary match.

"I said I will analyse the situation after these two games and nothing has changed," Fitzel said.

Olsen pleased

Denmark coach Morten Olsen was delighted with the three points following the comfortable victory over Malta.

"I'm always concerned about our next game and I said before this qualifier that we have to respect our opponents," Olsen said in the post-match press conference.

"We wanted to control the match from start to finish and the players managed to do that.

"Malta only had one scoring chance in the whole game. We remembered the danger posed by Michael Mifsud seven years ago (Malta lost 2-1 in Denmark), so we had to be very careful at the back.

"Our midfield and defenders, especially Martin Laursen and Daniel Agger, were concentrated for 90 minutes and Malta were rarely given the chance to pose any problems."