An excellent rebuttal by @Soccerlover to my post yesterday where I briefly criticized him for his own criticism of Sunil Chhetri. While I agree with some of your points, I cannot agree when you say Chhetri is "an average player" because you need to look at the contest involved. Within Indian football and among Indian players, he is the best player IMO so your statement makes little sense to me. You also bring up Ronaldo and Messi to state how they perform on the big stage; but if you don't need to be following football any closer than anyone else to know that Ronaldo and Messi, the greatest players of this current generation they maybe, has also been criticized on plenty of periods by fans for their lack of efficacy particularly in the international stage. So once again, I fail to see your point linking the best to Chhetri, particularly when you yourself call Chhetri average.
Everybody has to depend on his teammates to score! Or are you suggesting that he should dribble his way from our box to the opposition to score. This is one of the most ridiculous of points I have ever heard. Chhetri plays in a team and he has a specific role within the team, and the likes of Norde and Lyngdoh had certain other roles within the team. The fact that you yourself has admitted he uses Norde and Lyngdoh to score is a clear statement that he works well with his teammates, and as such I disagree with you wholeheartedly on this point. It is borderline lunacy to suggest he, or any other footballer, should do all of the work themselves. Need I also remind you that Norde and Lyngdoh has been in the same team as Chhetri for just over a year together while Chhetri has been in the profession and scoring aplenty for over a decade too.
Aside from some waffle about results being directly down to leadership (which it clear is not), I agree with some points you make; particularly when it comes to giving idols demi-god status and turning a blind eye when these very same people we have put on a pedestal is no longer an influence. But I disagree again with you on that Chhetri has been not performing because that is another ridiculous statement! He has outscored everybody else for the NT and in the local leagues, and that is the very reason why he has been getting opportunity, and to say he has flopped shows a severe lack of any acumen of the sport.
I don't want to speculate but your post, which started by stating that you don't get "overtly emotional" about anybody and then meanders it's way into a very caustic and frankly, insidious post on the very overt criticism you bestow upon Chhetri. It almost sounds personal and vindictive and I don't give a flying monkey what you have against Chhetri.
I don't know Chhetri, and frankly don't give a fack about him as along as he is influential and driving the NT in this very dire situation we find our self in, but I felt compelled to put forward my stance on him. Good argument nevertheless and I enjoyed your post.
I have not followed the ISl very closely, but from whatever little I have seen I think that one of the positives to have emerged for Indian football is the performance of the young Indian goalkeepers like Rehenesh, Amrinder Singh, Arindam Bhattacharya, Sanjiban Ghosh. They have made some excellent saves and have shown that they have in them the potential to perform on the big stage.
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@footydip dont feed the trolls