I-League 2018-19: 3 things that helped Chennai City to win the title

#2 Planning and strategy of Akbar Nawas

Akbar Nawas deserves the credit for making the team unstoppable

Even before the I-League 2017-18 season came to an end, Chennai City had appointed Singaporean coach Akbar Nawas as their next coach. Instead of sitting at his home country, Nawas came down to Chennai and even watched the last match, where Chennai City won 2-1 against Minerva Punjab.

Most of the coaches would go back to his country and come down only before the new season. But Nawas is so different from others. He stayed at Chennai and along with his assistant Jordi Villa, watched lower division leagues of Chennai. The duo handpicked not less than 20 players, whom they called for trial.

In the meantime, Villa went back to Spain and was desperately looking for Spanish players in the lower division sides who would play for Chennai. He had a list of 20 players, almost all of them belonged from the Canary Islands. Nawas, after consultation with his assistant, picked four among them.

After picking the Indian players, Nawas shifted his focus towards the style of play. He is usually a believer of possession-based football and asked the team to play in that way. He changed the age-old thought that Indians cannot play passing and possession-based football. Going by the statistics, Chennai had the greater possession in most of the games, even against East Bengal, which also plays in the same style under Alejandro Menendez.

Of course, he had the backing of the management, especially the owner Rohit Ramesh. Time and again, Nawas has praised Ramesh for believing his strategy. Finally, Ramesh and Nawas got the most prized award of Indian football.