Apart from that he had experience with Chinese national team and Uzbekistan national team. China just missed 1998 WC qualification and won bronze in Asian Games. There was a controversy in Uzbekistan match where he got involved with referee dont remember the exact incident. So point is, he did well with Asian national team.
From Wiki: Uzbekistan won the first match 1–0 but FIFA declared the result void after a refereeing mistake, and Uzbekistan were eliminated on the away goals rule.
Reg Bhaichung . Yah I remember he is not fit. Even if he is half-fit, it would made little more difference in forward line.
My 2 cents on our group, coach & performance in 2011 Asian cup
Reg our group, we are unfortunate to have top 3 teams in our group as pots are divided based on previous tournament results instead of FIFA ranking. Australia is top ranked Asian nation (FIFA Rank : 20 ) at that time, despite that they are in Pot2. They are finalists and lost to Japan (Winners) in extra time. They have defeated Uzbekistan in SF with 6-0 South Korea as usual top team ( Rank: 47 ) and they are top seeded team in Pot1. They are 3rd placed team in tournament and lost to Japan in penalty shoot-out in SF Bahrain (Rank 69) are top-seeded team in Pot3 andthey have lot of good players in their squad. Just like us, they are unfortunate to get Australia & S.Korea.
Reg Coach Bob: He is a good coach. But mostly he relied on long balls & set-pieces. It worked very well against SAFF & few other football nations, but not worked against strong teams. Though we are unfortunate to get tougher opponents, he had enough time & backing from AIFF & Govt to prepare well. He used same set of formation & players even during the preparations. Back 5 is not new to him and he could have utilized that formation for NT ( with 3 CB : Anwar Ali, Gouramangi & Mahesh Gawli & 2 Full backs). Mahesh Gawli not played even a minute in Asian cup (not sure if he is carrying any niggle) and Bhutia travelled with injury and played only couple of minutes in third game. Coach could have included the likes of Baljit Sahni (goal scorer) & Subhash Singh(decent pace & good in counter-attacks) in final 23.
Reg our results: First game against Australia (4-0), we had a tough game & in first half, conceded 3 goals. We recovered well in second half. Even Chhetri had a decent scoring chance. First goal is offside & could have avoided 4th goal with decent marking. Our mid-field is non-existence & Pradeep is weak link among the mid-fielders. Coach substituted him but with Mehrajuddin who again had a ordinary game. Even the likes of Abhishek Yadav & Mohammed Rafi are non-existence in attack. Abhishek atleast supported in defense.
Second game against Bahrain (5-2), our mid-field looks good with the addition of Renedy Singh. Also Climax supported well and we were able to play couple of good passes. We scored 2 good goals & second goal is actually scored by Renedy Singh. He is unfortunate not to get his name on score-sheet. 1st goal (penalty conceded by poor tackle by climax) & 2nd goal is offside, 3rd goal, it is a mistake either from Surkumar Singh or Gouramangi Singh. Last 28+ minutes, Bahrain played with 10 men, we lost our steam and couldn't able to attack much after 60 mins.
Third game against South Korea (4-1), don't have considerable complaints, Korean players are too fast & their positing is very good and all 4 goals are genuine one. Despite scoring 1 goal in first half, I can say this is the toughest first half compared to other 2 games. We badly missed Renedy Singh in mid-field & in 2nd half, as usual, we defended well.
As I have drawn a rosy picture, I must present drawbacks of Bob's tenure too - Two major complaints we had, one is he does not change his squad and works with a set of 23 - 24 players. Secondly his style was entirely british. But it worked well against team like Syria, Kazakistan, Kirghistan, North Korea. If you have followed football that time, Mehtab, Lalkamal, Alvito, Paresh Shivalkar, Abranches, Didika, Jeje, Shilton Da Silva were performing well but was not appearing in the team. It may be noted, Bob gave enough chances to Mehtab. After Venkatesh's retirement Wadoo and Mehtab got chances before NP Pradeep established himself along with Lawrance. I clearly remember, Bob was upset with Mehtab that he always commited early in the mid-field and conceded free kicks / gave away possession. I guess Alvito or Lalkamal would never get that much time on ball in international level and Costi had to substitute Alvito every time he started. What I feel he was not ready to take risk and break the combination as things were going well. Back to back victory in Nehru Cup, wining AFC Challenge Cup achieved by same team. Ajayan replaced by Deepak Mondal as a left back, Surkumar replaced Sameer Naik. Gawli lost his place to Anwar and Mangi. Once again I would like to say playing 4-4-2 is easiest as of now. I have explained in other thread. Will make a separate post about formation in India. He completely ignored Mehtab when he was a transformed player under Trevor Morgan. Could have replaced ageing Wadoo easily. I would bat for Bhaichung as playing in top tier Asian tournament was his dream and his inclusion was justified. We have seen this kind of inclusion in Brasil, France also. Yes someone might point out Romario was excluded and Ronaldinho was inclused by Luis Philip Scolary. But remember he had Ronaldinho. If I remember correctly he included Sushil Singh. Baljit was playing well could have got a chance. However if you have a closure look, there was not any skill full player who would have made a major deference against Aus or Korea. So more or less I will give him pass mark here too. If someone followed Challenger qualifier just after AFC, he gave chance to all performers namely Jeje, Dika, Shilton, Raju. I read his interview after that racism alligation, he clearly mentioned he has a plan with future team. It goes without saying Armando gained on that team what Bob sent to challenge cup qualifier and they won all of them. Regarding playing style - Until and unless you have four key players as RWB, RW, LWB, LW who can run up and down like machine, can defend crosses and send good crosses, playing with 3-5-2 is a distance dream. Bob never found a left back. Initially Ajayan from Mahindra then make shift Deepak Mondal and Nabi. Surkumar and Stever Dias was good at attack but equally poor in defending and dragging back. Climax Lawrence had to cover a lot of space in right side because of this. Hence I would like to give him pass mark here too. My philosophy is simple, when I do not have any money I will go for conventional investment like FD (read 4-4-2), once I save and prepared with emergency fund and some money to spare I would go for equity (read attacking formation of your choice).
@Carbon_14@munna219777@mohammed_87hassan I would be more than happy to contribute to blog but not this post please. I have written lot of politically incorrect statement and do not want to listen to music at this age. Have a job and family to run. This post can easily attract trouble as days are not good and people are influential. Also digging up all these would not help this present generation. Hence requesting you not to post this piece. If you want I will write article with much more political correctness for any subject on Indian football.
Regarding playing style - Until and unless you have four key players as RWB, RW, LWB, LW who can run up and down like machine, can defend crosses and send good crosses, playing with 3-5-2 is a distance dream.
Here, back 5 I'm referring, 3 CB & 2 Full backs (Right Back & Left Back) : 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 formation against the likes of Australia & Bahrain. Not the one he used in Sweden.
As you mentioned, 4-4-2 worked against SAFF nations & few other teams. But back-fired against stronger teams. Though Yemen is not strong, we completed got exposed against Yemen with 4-4-2 formation, similarly had lot of spaces in defense when playing against Australia & Bahrain. Our defenders are pretty much slow along with mid-fielders Pradeep & Mehrajuddin .Playing with 5 defenders would have benefitted us in 2011 Asian Cup.
The disadvantage of 4-4-2 is you need to have two competent CMs to cover your defense and provide support during attack which again we do not have. Its a have not's story brother. you neither have side backs nor world class CMs. So its Catch 22 whatever you try ! Believe me, without resource whatever formation you try it ends up crowding your own box and lowering the line which eliminates offside zone, so face more attack and your striker becomes real lonely. It becomes difficult. Because not every day park the bus works. If that was the case EB or MB could never beat any minnows in CFL. You need to play forward pass, put pressure on your opponent and can become hopeful. Thats why only match I liked in recent past is India against Oman in Guwahati. Not even against Thailand in Asia Cup 2019. Also the point was not defeat or wining in Asia Cup 2011. Nobody expected a single point. We expected slightly respectable display. Shaka Hislop was in commentary box, still remember him saying "Difficult to believe Indians are so lack of basic skills and unable to control the ball without any pressure, they are unbelievably naive, AFC should review this entry points" My ears bled. He added later "Actually as they are called sleeping giant and we thought they are awakening so expectation was more" I will try to share Bob's first home match against Saudi Arabia in YBK. We lost 0-3 but played real attacking football. Manjit Singh was clubless played match of his life. Bhutia hit the bar from close range. Saudi GK had a busy day. Wadoo and Venkatesh paired in the midfield. Will try to find the match in you tube. You will understand how his 4-4-2 worked against Saudi, but we had no merit to earn anything with any formation against Australia or Korea.
Bob's style of long balls and playing 4-4-2 was largely dictated by the resources at his disposal at that time. Remember, at that time the level of I-league was atrocious! Matches were played on uneven, bare grounds in scorching heat at 2 PM! All teams merely hoofed the ball towards mostly african strikers lije ranti martin or odafa okolie etc who would then scire easily. Midfielders had absolutely no role! Only Dempo played a somewhat decent passing gane back then. So Bob used the tactic and formation which best suited our technical attributes at that time. 4-4-2 was easy since it was already used at club level, roles were easy to understand and while defending (which was often) 2 rows of 4 players can be parked in front of our goal. Besides Chettri, and Climax we had virtually no other technical player in the team. And we fought well against Australia. I remember reading that Australian coach praised us.
And after Asia Cup, in the next set of matches Bob did use other younger players and inculcated a more passing style. I remember feeling excited about the changes he brought in the team after Asia cup.
Comments
Uzbekistan won the first match 1–0 but FIFA declared the result void after a refereeing mistake, and Uzbekistan were eliminated on the away goals rule.
Reg Bhaichung . Yah I remember he is not fit. Even if he is half-fit, it would made little more difference in forward line.
Reg our group, we are unfortunate to have top 3 teams in our group as pots are divided based on previous tournament results instead of FIFA ranking.
Australia is top ranked Asian nation (FIFA Rank : 20 ) at that time, despite that they are in Pot2. They are finalists and lost to Japan (Winners) in extra time. They have defeated Uzbekistan in SF with 6-0
South Korea as usual top team ( Rank: 47 ) and they are top seeded team in Pot1. They are 3rd placed team in tournament and lost to Japan in penalty shoot-out in SF
Bahrain (Rank 69) are top-seeded team in Pot3 and they have lot of good players in their squad. Just like us, they are unfortunate to get Australia & S.Korea.
Reg Coach Bob:
He is a good coach. But mostly he relied on long balls & set-pieces. It worked very well against SAFF & few other football nations, but not worked against strong teams. Though we are unfortunate to get tougher opponents, he had enough time & backing from AIFF & Govt to prepare well. He used same set of formation & players even during the preparations. Back 5 is not new to him and he could have utilized that formation for NT ( with 3 CB : Anwar Ali, Gouramangi & Mahesh Gawli & 2 Full backs).
Mahesh Gawli not played even a minute in Asian cup (not sure if he is carrying any niggle) and Bhutia travelled with injury and played only couple of minutes in third game. Coach could have included the likes of Baljit Sahni (goal scorer) & Subhash Singh(decent pace & good in counter-attacks) in final 23.
Reg our results:
First game against Australia (4-0), we had a tough game & in first half, conceded 3 goals. We recovered well in second half. Even Chhetri had a decent scoring chance. First goal is offside & could have avoided 4th goal with decent marking. Our mid-field is non-existence & Pradeep is weak link among the mid-fielders. Coach substituted him but with Mehrajuddin who again had a ordinary game. Even the likes of Abhishek Yadav & Mohammed Rafi are non-existence in attack. Abhishek atleast supported in defense.
Second game against Bahrain (5-2), our mid-field looks good with the addition of Renedy Singh. Also Climax supported well and we were able to play couple of good passes. We scored 2 good goals & second goal is actually scored by Renedy Singh. He is unfortunate not to get his name on score-sheet.
1st goal (penalty conceded by poor tackle by climax) & 2nd goal is offside, 3rd goal, it is a mistake either from Surkumar Singh or Gouramangi Singh. Last 28+ minutes, Bahrain played with 10 men, we lost our steam and couldn't able to attack much after 60 mins.
Third game against South Korea (4-1), don't have considerable complaints, Korean players are too fast & their positing is very good and all 4 goals are genuine one. Despite scoring 1 goal in first half, I can say this is the toughest first half compared to other 2 games. We badly missed Renedy Singh in mid-field & in 2nd half, as usual, we defended well.
Two major complaints we had, one is he does not change his squad and works with a set of 23 - 24 players. Secondly his style was entirely british. But it worked well against team like Syria, Kazakistan, Kirghistan, North Korea.
If you have followed football that time, Mehtab, Lalkamal, Alvito, Paresh Shivalkar, Abranches, Didika, Jeje, Shilton Da Silva were performing well but was not appearing in the team. It may be noted, Bob gave enough chances to Mehtab. After Venkatesh's retirement Wadoo and Mehtab got chances before NP Pradeep established himself along with Lawrance. I clearly remember, Bob was upset with Mehtab that he always commited early in the mid-field and conceded free kicks / gave away possession. I guess Alvito or Lalkamal would never get that much time on ball in international level and Costi had to substitute Alvito every time he started. What I feel he was not ready to take risk and break the combination as things were going well. Back to back victory in Nehru Cup, wining AFC Challenge Cup achieved by same team. Ajayan replaced by Deepak Mondal as a left back, Surkumar replaced Sameer Naik. Gawli lost his place to Anwar and Mangi. Once again I would like to say playing 4-4-2 is easiest as of now. I have explained in other thread. Will make a separate post about formation in India.
He completely ignored Mehtab when he was a transformed player under Trevor Morgan. Could have replaced ageing Wadoo easily.
I would bat for Bhaichung as playing in top tier Asian tournament was his dream and his inclusion was justified. We have seen this kind of inclusion in Brasil, France also. Yes someone might point out Romario was excluded and Ronaldinho was inclused by Luis Philip Scolary. But remember he had Ronaldinho.
If I remember correctly he included Sushil Singh. Baljit was playing well could have got a chance.
However if you have a closure look, there was not any skill full player who would have made a major deference against Aus or Korea.
So more or less I will give him pass mark here too.
If someone followed Challenger qualifier just after AFC, he gave chance to all performers namely Jeje, Dika, Shilton, Raju. I read his interview after that racism alligation, he clearly mentioned he has a plan with future team. It goes without saying Armando gained on that team what Bob sent to challenge cup qualifier and they won all of them.
Regarding playing style -
Until and unless you have four key players as RWB, RW, LWB, LW who can run up and down like machine, can defend crosses and send good crosses, playing with 3-5-2 is a distance dream. Bob never found a left back. Initially Ajayan from Mahindra then make shift Deepak Mondal and Nabi. Surkumar and Stever Dias was good at attack but equally poor in defending and dragging back. Climax Lawrence had to cover a lot of space in right side because of this.
Hence I would like to give him pass mark here too. My philosophy is simple, when I do not have any money I will go for conventional investment like FD (read 4-4-2), once I save and prepared with emergency fund and some money to spare I would go for equity (read attacking formation of your choice).
Hence requesting you not to post this piece. If you want I will write article with much more political correctness for any subject on Indian football.
As you mentioned, 4-4-2 worked against SAFF nations & few other teams. But back-fired against stronger teams. Though Yemen is not strong, we completed got exposed against Yemen with 4-4-2 formation, similarly had lot of spaces in defense when playing against Australia & Bahrain. Our defenders are pretty much slow along with mid-fielders Pradeep & Mehrajuddin .Playing with 5 defenders would have benefitted us in 2011 Asian Cup.
Believe me, without resource whatever formation you try it ends up crowding your own box and lowering the line which eliminates offside zone, so face more attack and your striker becomes real lonely. It becomes difficult. Because not every day park the bus works. If that was the case EB or MB could never beat any minnows in CFL.
You need to play forward pass, put pressure on your opponent and can become hopeful. Thats why only match I liked in recent past is India against Oman in Guwahati. Not even against Thailand in Asia Cup 2019.
Also the point was not defeat or wining in Asia Cup 2011. Nobody expected a single point. We expected slightly respectable display. Shaka Hislop was in commentary box, still remember him saying "Difficult to believe Indians are so lack of basic skills and unable to control the ball without any pressure, they are unbelievably naive, AFC should review this entry points"
My ears bled.
He added later "Actually as they are called sleeping giant and we thought they are awakening so expectation was more"
I will try to share Bob's first home match against Saudi Arabia in YBK. We lost 0-3 but played real attacking football. Manjit Singh was clubless played match of his life. Bhutia hit the bar from close range. Saudi GK had a busy day. Wadoo and Venkatesh paired in the midfield. Will try to find the match in you tube. You will understand how his 4-4-2 worked against Saudi, but we had no merit to earn anything with any formation against Australia or Korea.
And after Asia Cup, in the next set of matches Bob did use other younger players and inculcated a more passing style. I remember feeling excited about the changes he brought in the team after Asia cup.