Buttigieg urges players to seize their chance ahead of Euro 2012 trek

As the 2010 World Cup finalists begin to fine-tune their preparations for South Africa, Malta will be striving to attain the somewhat mundane target of kicking off their build-up for the Euro 2012 qualifiers on a heartening note when they take on Finland in a friendly at the National Stadium this evening.

Malta's Euro 2012 opponents are already known after the draw placed the national team in Group F along with Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia and Georgia. The prospect of another arduous campaign makes it imperative on national coach John Buttigieg and his players to gear up for the qualifiers in the best way possible, starting with this warm-up against Finland.

"This friendly is part of our preparations for the Euro 2012 qualifiers," Buttigieg told reporters yesterday.

"This game is an opportunity for the players to show their qualities in international football and to consolidate their place in the team. We will also use this friendly to try players who don't have much experience at this level."

Buttigieg's opening words left no-one in doubt that he is thinking about the national team's present as well as the future. In truth, his selection also underlined his intentions to break with the past as captain Gilbert Agius and Brian Said, both 36, were left out.

"We need to look ahead," Buttigieg replied when asked to identify the reasons behind the omission of Agius and Said.

"The qualifying campaign is likely to start in a few months' time and it is usually spread over two years. Players of a certain age can't keep playing forever. We have a duty to groom young ones to replace the older generation when the time comes.

"That said, we also have to think about the present. We will continue to monitor the performances of all players, irrespective of age, but we also need to plan for the future."

Agius was not the only Valletta player to be dropped as the same fate befell goalkeeper Andrew Hogg, Kevin Sammut and Terrence Scerri. The omission of four Valletta players was met with a few raised eyebrows in light of the dispute between the Malta FA and the Premier League leaders over the national team's training scheme but Buttigieg dismissed the notion that this controversy conditioned his thinking.

"I have chosen the players who, in my view, are in the best form at present," he stressed.

His squad of 18 players features four other Valletta players - Kenneth Scicluna, Jamie Pace, Roderick Briffa and Steve Bezzina.

If the exclusion of some established players came as a surprise to some, the same can also be said of Buttigieg's decision to keep faith with Michael Mifsud who has not played a match at club level since last May.

Although Buttigieg is concerned about the striker's situation, he is still convinced that the 28-year-old is still better than most of his peers who have been playing regularly for their clubs.

"Michael was very close to signing for a new club last week," Buttigieg said.

"I can only judge him from his performances during training sessions and for me, he's still one of the best we have in this country."

Despite his lack of regular football, Mifsud contributed with three of the four goals Malta scored over the past 12 months. However, none of those came in a competitive match as Malta failed to find the net in the World Cup qualifiers.

The scoring drought made for a depressing statistic for Malta and Buttigieg craves improvement in this area.

"Not scoring a single goal in the World Cup qualifiers was really disappointing," he said.

"My players believe they can score in every match. Ironically, Michael Mifsud has scored three of the four goals for the national team in the last friendlies. He's the team's leading scorer.

"I hope that we improve our scoring record in the next matches."

Mifsud is expected to form a two-pronged attack with Barnsley's in-form forward Daniel Bogdanovic as Buttigieg is likely to favour a 4-4-2 formation.

With Agius and Said, the vice-captain, out of the equation, the responsibility of leading Malta this evening will be handed to Mifsud, provided he is in the starting formation. The way of things in the national team is that the on-field captain is the player with most caps.

With 119 caps to his name, Agius had set his sights on David Carabott's record of 122 matches for Malta but his hopes suffered a setback with his exclusion from the latest squad.

Fielding a question about Agius's record bid, Buttigieg replied: "It would be nice for a player to achieve a milestone but I'm not here to help players establish new marks. I have to look after the interests of the national team."

Buttigieg also revealed that Australian-based John Hutchinson was in his plans for this friendly but the Central Coast Mariners midfielder has been ruled out by injury.

Manny Muscat, of Wellington Phoenix, has not been considered for this game but remains on Buttigieg's radar.

Schembri's position

André Schembri, who recently joined Ferencvaros on a short-term deal, has also been left out but Buttigieg explained the reasons behind the 23-year-old's continued absence.

"André had told me a few months ago that he'd rather not be considered for selection to concentrate on his club career," Buttigieg said.

"I disagreed with that way of thinking but that was his decision then. No player can choose when to join the national team and when not to. You can't pick and choose the matches you want to be involved in."

Today's meeting will not evoke happy memories for Buttigieg.

In a Euro 92 qualifier, the former central defender committed a mistake that led to Finland's late equaliser in a 1-1 draw.

"People keep reminding me about that game but a lot of time has passed now," Buttigieg said.

"For me, this connotation has no significance at all."

Buttigieg is eight months into a five-year contract he signed with the MFA last August. The length of the deal given to Buttigieg and Carmel Busuttil, his assistant, has drawn criticism in some quarters.

When the contract issue came up during yesterday's news conference, Buttigieg said: "What bothers me is that some people have been talking publicly about my contract but this is a private thing. I don't speak about the contracts of other people, it's not my business."

Meanwhile, Buttigieg, Joe Mifsud, the MFA president, and national teams' manager Ivan Vella will fly out to Greece on Saturday for discussions with the representatives of the Group F teams over the fixture schedule.

A strong showing today would send the MFA delegation in high spirits for their meeting in Athens, scheduled for Sunday.