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#3 Square Pegs in Round Holes
India started the game with six Bengaluru FC players. Bengaluru play a passing style of football that revolves around the likes of Dimas Delgado in midfield, which ultimately brings the best out of the likes of Chhetri and Udanta.
India don't have the luxury of a controller of the quality of Dimas. So, Stimac has decided to drop Brandon Fernandes into a deeper role to control possession and the tempo of play.
But Brandon, for all his precocious talent, is just not that kind of player. He's more in the Chhetri mould, a player who loves drifting into spaces in midfield, and playing through balls and taking shots from there.
In this role, Brandon is only recycling possession off centre-backs, and then hitting long and hoping it sticks. Using him this way is such a disservice to the talent he possesses. And, it beggars belief that Stimac has found Brandon for this role, where there's a more natural fit for that role in Anirudh Thapa.
It's a stark reminder of the way in which Constantine used Eugeneson Lyngdoh in a much deeper role for the national team, curbing a lot of the positive qualities that Lyngdoh had, which meant the man from Meghalaya never really shone bright on the international stage, at least never at the levels he managed for Bengaluru FC.
Similarly, the left-back conundrum India have gotten into, is also leading to a lot of confusion. Sergio Lobera successfully transformed a flying winger in Mandar into a left-back, but that doesn't mean every winger can be as effective.
Ashique Kuruniyan fought gamely, defended his one-on-ones really well, went forward when he could, but were India using his talent the best they could? Now, there's a natural left-back in the squad, too, in Subhasish Bose. So, what is the point of these experiments in tough competitive games?
Stimac is faced with plenty of questions. But, the conundrum he faces is that in trying to answer some of them, he has only created more questions.
With a game against Afghanistan at home and another away to Bangladesh coming up later in the campaign, Stimac knows that he needs to show some results to back up the process that he's trying to build.
