With a third finish in the Joint Qualifiers of the World Cup mMHK and Asian Cup on their sights, Bangladesh Football “=“• Federation president Kazi Salahuddin is seeming concerned over Bangladesh’s poor defending from deadball situation around the danger zone and thus instructed the coaching staffs to improve it appropriately.

Bangladesh's intent is to upset their mighty opponents Kyrgyzstan (June 11) and Tajikistan (June 16) in the first two matches on home ground to stay in an advantageous position before travelling to those countries for the away matches.

The demand from the BFF boss is quite rational as there were a lot of recent examples that Bangladesh had to suffer either defeats or draws in international matches after conceding goals from set pieces.

For instance, Bangladesh were hoping to clinch the Bangabandhu Gold Cup on home ground with the match locked at 2-2, they suddenly conceded the decider in the dying-moments from a corner kick.

In the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers Bangladesh U-23 side conceded six out of eight goals from set pieces.

Having observed the situation in the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers, the BFF boss instructed the local referees to strictly follow the rules of law of the game in the

Bangladesh Premier League in a bid to get rid of unnecessary tackles by the players around the danger zone but the situation in the professional football league has hardly changed.

Saiful Bari Titu, assistant coach of the national team who has kept his eyes glued at all matches of the league, observed that the national defenders like Tapu Barman, Yeamin Munna and Yeasin Khan committed the same mistakes around the danger zone time and again in the ongoing league and he also repeatedly communicated those to the players to identify their mistakes to no avail.

It was also seen in Sunday's Premier League encounter that Tapu Barman, who is playing for Sheikh Russel KC, committed unnecessary fouls against Team BJMC twice around the danger zone to be booked and finally gave a penalty to the opponents.

"Everybody knows it (set pieces) is a big concern and a big problem in our football at this moment. We have to tackle it. It is our job to solve this problem," said Dutch coach Lodewijkde Kruif.

"For future, I have good hopes. What we did is that we hired a goalkeeping coach who is now busy with the goalkeepers and defense organization. That is our target to improve that area."

"What we will also do is to train our defense and midfield line to anticipate better and read the situation better than they did before," hoped de Kruif after the meeting with the BFF boss.