#5 Playing Strategy
This one is long, but the most important too.
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Stabeak FC’s Indian goalkeeper, was given the captain’s armband by the coach, which seemed to defy logic. The team has played different and better football in the recent past and Gurpreet’s European inputs has surely helped his compatriots, but stripping your leader on the field is a poor thing to do.
Sunil is a team man though, and he showed why the armband doesn’t matter to him. Leading from the front, India’s highest scorer ever scored one and assisted two other goals from striker Jeje Lalpekhlua and full-back Narayan Das.
Make no mistake; I’m not challenging Arnab’s defensive abilities at all. It’s his one-dimensional play which might hurt the team’s build-up play in the future. Arnab, throughout his career, has been very sound defensively and has a no-nonsense swagger with the ball in his box.
You put it in his way and he’ll clear the line. Sandesh Jhingan’s growth as the ball-playing defender bides well for the team, while the side-backs Narayan Das and Pritam Kotal confidence on the ball and strong defensive abilities ensures India has a calm and futuristically stable look to its back-line.
Coming to the centre-line, Eugenson Lyngdoh is arguably the best box-to-box creative midfielder India has ever produced. Period. Eugenson is India’s corner specialist and takes free-kicks in the absence of Sunil Chhetri and that proves his effectiveness even on dead ball situations.
Constantine has always built his team around the diminutive midfielder and has made sure Eugenson has the freedom to show his skills. Jakichand Singh, Bikash Jairu, Holicharan Narzary and Seityasen Singh are wingers who can both cross or play as inverted wingers. Interestingly, all four of them are young and have blossoming careers ahead of them.
Up ahead, Sunil Chhetri is India’s and Constantine’s talisman, deservingly. Sunil has served Indian football impeccably well and deserves a lot of respect. His fighting attitude and goal-scoring abilities have won India matches and tournaments in the past single-handedly, and Constantine surely knows his strengths.
At 32, Chhetri is arguably the fittest in the team, and just needs a striker to finish his moves. Jeje is a smart customer on the field and has been around Chhetri for a long time to know his game well.
Jeje is not a Robin Singh to throw himself at aerial balls only. He runs behind defenders and plays at the end of the supply-line, finishing things. Scoring 7 goals in last 7 International games shows the striker is doing just the right things. He’s being the ultimate poacher, the striker who feeds off well from India’s main creator, Sunil Chhetri.
