Tanjong Pagar United interim coach Noh Alam Shah focuses on turning ‘losers’ into ‘winners’

SINGAPORE – On Dec 2, Noh Alam Shah touched down at Changi Airport at 2am after a six-month attachment with J1 League club Tokyo Verdy and returned to his Ang Mo Kio home.

By 5.30am, he was at Jurong East Stadium to begin his first day of work as Tanjong Pagar United’s interim coach.

Training did not start until 7am, but the 44-year-old was already putting into place lessons from his Japan stint.

The benchmarks he sets will not just be confined to the players but also the coaching staff, as he attempts to haul the Jaguars off the foot of the Singapore Premier League. They have just two wins and two draws in 19 games.

It will be his second stint with the Jaguars, where he was formerly an assistant to Hasrin Jailani, who was replaced by interim coach Hyrizan Jufri in September. 

The former Lion, who was one of Singapore’s top strikers with 35 international goals from 80 caps, told The Straits Times: “If I want my players to run 10km, I will come earlier and run 10km before them. There must be a certain level of intensity in training, and if the coaches are not up to it, then we will be at the grassroots, and not professional level.

“If coaches want players to respond, we have to show our credibility. That was my biggest takeaway from Japan, and I want to establish a more professional culture and environment, especially in terms of mentality among the backroom staff.”

As such, he has also made his coaching team run a minimum of 15km every week to stay in shape.

Next, he moved decisively to sign Canadian goalkeeper Matt Silva in a bid to plug a defence that has leaked a league-high 73 goals in 19 games.

He explained: “I will give credit and criticism when they are due. We have rotated three goalkeepers and our best result in the last six games was a 4-1 loss. When you look at the matches, we could have conceded fewer, if not for goalkeeping errors. So, naturally this is the first thing we have to address.”

Alam Shah has never shied away from straight talk, and despite hanging up his boots in 2015, he has lost none of the fire that made him one of the most feared players in the region.

When asked what would represent success at the end of the season, he said: “I told them success would be staying with the club because none of them deserve to be here at this moment, and success would be to convince me to offer you a bloody contract.

“I told the staff the same thing because if we stay at the club, it means we have done something good on the field.”

He is heartened that the hard truths he delivered have had some positive effect on the team.

Alam Shah said: “I told them, ‘We are losers, and I have come back to be part of this losing team, so I’m now a loser as well. We are all in this together, and we will be winners soon. Accept your weaknesses, build on your strengths’.

“Football is not just about the 90 minutes on the pitch, it is about the steps you take to get there. We have been losers for so long, I just want us to focus on the small wins.

“Don’t concentrate on the table, go for the small wins like running your best time or scoring in training. When we get the small wins, we will start winning as a team.”

Noting that his players have improved their fitness as they pushed themselves in training, he added: “They have given me everything these past four weeks, and the determination and output they have shown me made me wonder how things could have gone so wrong this season?

“I believe we will be more united as a team, more bright in our play, and show more fighting spirit for the rest of the season.”

The sense of loyalty is also what led Alam Shah to return to the bottom club, despite his ambitions of coaching overseas one day, as he eyes the AFC Pro Diploma course in 2025.

After his playing career ended with Tampines Rovers in 2015, he became Fandi Ahmad’s assistant coach with the national team in 2018, before joining Tanjong Pagar as they made a return to the SPL in 2020.

While his official role was team manager, he was as much involved in the coaching as then coach Hasrin, as they overcame a last-placed finish in 2020 to improve to fifth in 2021, despite limited resources.

He said: “I feel good about coming back from Japan to become the interim head coach here because I’m now able to practise and implement things I learnt from Japan, where I was more of an assistant doing what the head coach wanted.

“I have had several good years coaching at Tanjong Pagar and my character is such that when I see someone down – whether it is my teammate, or now my club – I feel a responsibility to give a hand and help pull them up. This is why I’m back.”