I saw the Indian team matches. Even our midfield is not good enough. What each player tries to do is to either try and run with the ball individually on a solo run until they end up in a cul de sac or are dispossesed by a rival player or else our players try some audacious "through ball" like passes which the otger player fails to collect because both of tgem are not on tge same wavelength! We don't play simple, sensible short passing football and are unable to stribg more tgen 3 passes in a single move. Check out the stats. Our possesdion play is abysmal! The only time Indian youth team played well was under Nicolai Adam when they had a sense of purposr, a clear strategy of how to attack and they used to play fast paced counter attacking football mainly through the wings. Although that was completely one dimensional approach as our central midfielders were not involved in any attacking moves at all and rival teams soon figured us out but nonetheless it was pleasing, attractive football and most importantly, we were scoring goals back then. The best example of this football was in the AFC U16 competition held in India in Goa in 2016 i think. We scored 3 against Saudi Arabia in the first maych i believe.
Hope Doru Isac reviews the poor performance of Ind U19 team. May do well to bring back Nicolai Adam as Scout and do scouting in all regions (Dont limit it to few hotspots).
Teams which are weak in frontal attacks and Forwards will 1) Play disciplined and Defensive football 2) Robust Physical performance 3) Improve their chances of scoring on set-pieces.
Indian Age Group teams are unable to do any of the above. Just blaming forward line is not enough. Disappointment is in all the fields including selection and coaching.
Munna I dont completely agree with you. Look at Bibiano's team, they followed the same approach and made it to the AFC quarters. Bibian's new U16 also did very well against some big names like USA, Mexico, Slovenia, Macedonia etc
they should first prove themselves in U19 I-League..win it..and make themselves deserved to be in Indian team..which does not seem to be the case now..they have taken their places for granted..
Even Bibiano's team st AFC u16 championship in Malasia sufferred from tge same defects as the current u19 or any other age group team in india - they lost the ball too easily in the face of even slight pressing from opponents, players were not stringing more than 3 passes in attack and often resorted to long balls aimed at Vikram Pratap Singh (who was playing as forward at that time) or else solo runs. Remember India only scored 1 goal in 4 matches in that tournament! We won 1-0 against Vietnam and drew the other two matches against iran and indonesia (often due to last ditch defending). Even against south korea we lost 1-0 while creating a total of 3 shots on goal ourselves if i remember correctly. In that tournament we survived solely due to desperate defending, nothing else. Look I am not trying to sound pessimistic here but we need to accept certain hard facts about the capability of our players. Excellent technical ability is not only about dribbling the ball and making brilliant solo runs like messi. Its also about keeping the ball against pressure, passing it to your teammate, off the ball movement, reading the game situation snd reacting accordingly etc. Even if our players lack technical attributes, at the very least they can learn to be more physical, learn high pressing, have more stamina to run for full 90 minutes and try to close down opposition players early and play short, simple passes among themsrlves. These are phydical attributes which can be learnt even at a late age of 15-16 years.
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Indian Age Group teams are unable to do any of the above. Just blaming forward line is not enough. Disappointment is in all the fields including selection and coaching.
Look I am not trying to sound pessimistic here but we need to accept certain hard facts about the capability of our players. Excellent technical ability is not only about dribbling the ball and making brilliant solo runs like messi. Its also about keeping the ball against pressure, passing it to your teammate, off the ball movement, reading the game situation snd reacting accordingly etc. Even if our players lack technical attributes, at the very least they can learn to be more physical, learn high pressing, have more stamina to run for full 90 minutes and try to close down opposition players early and play short, simple passes among themsrlves. These are phydical attributes which can be learnt even at a late age of 15-16 years.