I-League 2018-19: How has Shillong Lajong’s all-Indian squad gamble worked?

#2 Not dominating matches due to inexperience

Lack of experience are haunting them this season

The only match, which Lajong dominated was against East Bengal. In their own turf, they had the fair share of ball possession and created some beautiful scoring opportunities. But the result didn’t go in their favour largely due to their inexperience.

In fact, the lack of experience is haunting them this season from the second match. These footballers are mostly coming from the academy and have no experience of I-League. Also, they didn’t play too much outside the region.

Lajong have played four away matches so far, losing all of them. The weather and conditions affected them so much.

They have lost 2-4 against Churchill Brothers and 1-3 against Gokulam Kerala FC. These two parts of the country are usually hot and humid, contrary to Lajong’s home conditions.

They went to Kashmir and lost 1-6. This time, the extreme cold prevented their natural style of play. The whole team completely surrendered against the new opponents.

The shuffling within the team also contributed their failure. Coach Alison Kharsyntiew didn’t play Mahesh in every match, despite the youngster putting up a good show every time. Also, the injury of some key players made their life tougher.