Thailand coach Mano Polking told his men to learn from their 2-0 loss to Uzbekistan in their final game of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers on Tuesday.
Jaloliddin Masharipov and Azizbek Turgunbaye were on target for the hosts, who topped Group C with nine points from three matches.
With two victories against the Maldives and Sri Lanka, the War Elephants advanced to the 2023 finals as one of the five best runners-up.
"This loss is a good lesson because we have a year to fix everything, to get good results," Polking said. "At the 2023 Asian Cup, we need to take advantage of everything we have learned from this match to be stronger."
With their place in the finals confirmed prior to kick-off, Polking made several changes to his side and identified several areas that need improvement.
"We need to be better at making the transition from defence to attack. We defended well when Uzbekistan were attacking but we were caught out when they hit us on the counter-attack. Regardless of the result, we reached the goal. Thailand will have one of the strongest squads at the Asian Cup finals," said the Brazilian.
Polking made four adjustments in the second half, including taking off Theerathon Bunmathan and Tristan Do as Thailand kept Uzbekistan at bay for the remainder of the 45 minutes.
"The substitution of four players at the start of the second half was necessary because we didn't perform well enough. I wanted the team to play more aggressively than they did in the first half," he said. "We need to regroup ahead of the finals. We still have time to prepare and we must take advantage of this."
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is still looking for a new host for the 2023 finals after China withdrew from organising the event due to Covid.
