Congrats on making it to the AFC cup, never thought any team getting beaten 5 straight matches still manages to make it to AFC cup.
Now we have to make some serious changes needs to be done to this team. SC Insistance on both failed Fullbacks, Eugene , Jackichand, bringing in Rafique when we are just 2-1 up with a frail defense just to shore it up? These are questionable decisions which will be exposed big time when playing even half decent teams.
If he was seriously a capable coach he will bring in a lot of faces from the u-23 squads than insist on the usual poor performers.
Pace is poor and complete lack of movement from Jeje, things picked up when a 30+ striker Balwant came on.
I have seen many members say that Stephen should be sacked,we win against lower teams etc,we don"t play our best players etc.
Guys,let me make it very clear that I also don"t like Stephen as a coach but surely the federation can"t sack him for the results which we have attained.I am gonna play Devil"s advocate and defend him.
First of all ,i know the fact that but we are minnows in the game of Football. We are a complete minnow in football.So,can we sack him after we win SAFF(World cup for South Asia) and after we qualify for our 4th(Asia Cup) in our History.Perhaps,for the first time on merit.When i say merit,I mean,not on face value or not through the back door entry.
Next is,when our draw for the group came(in this phase),were anyone of us genuinely thinking that we will qualify for the Asian Cup with two games to spare and had we not conceded today,we would have actually qualified without conceding a goal.Still, winning 4 out of 4 matches and qualifying for Asia cup is a big thing and a big achievement in my opinion.
I have observed many of the members saying that 12 game unbeaten streak,or prior to this match,11 match winning streak was against weaker nations.Guys,are we Germany,Argentina etc since we have the audacity,courage etc to call other teams weak.We belong to SAFF REGION(PERHAPS REGION WISE POOREST IN THE WORLD WHEN IT COMES TO FOOTBALL QUALITY)that we are saying other teams are weaker.We were ranked at 173 a year ago and today we are calling other teams weak.Even our, so called better teams have not not won Saff cup always.
During this,so called unbeaten streak,we have managed to beat Myanmar away and Kyrgyz Republic at home.No one in this forum,including me predicted us to get 6 points out of these two fixtures that too without conceding a goal and that too in AFC Qualifiers(When it mattered the most).
So,this streak is not just against the so called weaker teams.We have won some some challenging matches and matches where we were the underdogs as well(Myanmar away,Kyrgyzstan at home) that too in Asia Cup Qualifiers and lot was at stake.
Next,coming to his team selection etc.Guys,let"s ask ourselves a question?If we were a foreign coach and we would have been managing any club,country etc and managed 11 wins and a draw out of 12 matches,would we make changes.Honestly,answer this question. The answer is no.How can anyone make changes after winning 11 and drawing 1 match in 12 matches played.I will certainly not make any changes except for forced ones.There is famous English saying "don't fix it if it aint broke".
The last thing won which i want to share my opinion on which many of the members say that we don"t have a style,like possession,counter attack,high press etc.Let me ask a question?Do we actually think that with the players which we have got ,can we actually genuinely implement a style.Our players(not the u-17) but others are basic level players.They fail to fit into formations,they can hardly make 2 consecutive passes.Everyone saw their crossing.They lack pace,strength,technical ability,awareness,power,speed etc all the so called basic attributes of Football.So,no matter who ever plays in the current crop of players the Result would have been similar.
Inclusion of couple of players here and there wouldn"t have made a huge difference to our campaign.Let"s face it,there is no one who you could say can influence a Footballing game on his own against a half decent side in Asia.We have seen many a times.The best talent which we have got(other than u-17 boys),what it seems like is Gurpreet and Udanta.
The hard fact being(trust me, it pains me to say this).One was released by his European club after a game or two over a period of 2-3 years from a mediocre Euopean Club and other one gathers no transfer interest at Asian level club,let alone European level club.So,do we except them to Fit into a Formation Style,Then Fit into a Playing Style and then too Execute the instruction Day in Day out against some of the Better Teams in Asia.Its asking way too much.They are just not good enough.
Its a simple fact,we don"t have any players outside India,which means all our players play for Indian Clubs.Indian Clubs don"t qualify for Asian Champions league,which means we cant compete with teams in Asian Champions League.So,how can India compete with players of countries playing in Asian Champions League or European Clubs.Its foolish too expect India to be competitive against teams.Its pure and Simple logic.That is why we struggle.It proves our players aren"t good enough.
My point being,with the players we have got,even if you bring the best coach,he will find it difficult to improve our team.Having couple of players replaced wouldn"t have made any difference to our campaign because if you leave the u-17 team,there aren"t any Match Winners,Match Changers sitting out.They are also just marginally better or marginally worse,either way.So,in this regard i feel Stephen has done a great job in making us qualify for the Asian Cup with these players by winning 4 out of 4 matches and we should be content and happy on our Achievement.
Our U-17 Team promising and Skillful.They have given me hope.However,till they mature which will be in 2-4 yrs ,with the type of players we have,we should be happy if we win the SAFF CUP and celebrate if we manage to qualify for Asia Cup.Just simple fact.
Once last thing,is that many of our members have said that Rankings are not that important if we don"t do justice to them i.e if we don"t win against teams that are ranked below us.This was a fair point in my opinion till now.However,this notion will have to change after watching the u-17 guys play.I say this beacuse India is a strange country in the way that if you want to improve the profile of a sport,investment in grass root level for it is not required.Only,a performance in that sport is required.Be it any sport.This is my opinion and observation. See,Wrestling:-A medal by Sushil Kumar in 2008,whole profile of Wrestling has changed.The standard and facilities of Akhara(Wrestling centre) have the remained the same.Still only majorly existent in Haryana,Punjab.It hasn"t been the case that suddenly massive money was invested but profile of the sport has improved leaps and bounce.
Badminton:-Saina"s bronze at 2012 Olympics.All of a sudden,India is a super power in Badminton.Still,only one Academy is producing the players.So,my point being that still only one Academy is producing world class players but the profile of the sport has risen leaps and bounce.
Similarily,i feel the profile of the Football can increase by two ways:-
1)Senior National team does something extraordinary . eg) Qualify for World Cup or beat a high profile team.Both of which looks a distant dream.
2)The second being maybe a player or two sign for top European Clubs.The matches of which are telecasted. That basically means,the top 5 European Leagues.This is bound to create hype among the youth who will be seeing their heroes rubbing their shoulders with and against some of the best players of the World.This seems a more realistic possibility after seeing our u-17 team in comparison to our senior team qualifying for a World Cup.For our Young players to signed by Top Leagues/clubs our ranking has to improve even if our performances don"t match up with our rankings,ideally in top 70 in my opinion.
Still no point in supporting SC with such a long post. Under him I think we have played 20+ games and the only good games have been Semi decent performance by India U-23 1-0 Myanmar away 1-0 Kyrgyz at home These results are the levels we always wanted to be at with having a league like ISL,investment etc and are no magical results from SC. We are getting lost by the twisted jump in ranking that we got and getting delusional. I think AIFF has money constraints around senior coach budget and also some sort of Nexus of Bhaichung/Venky/Abhishek etc which stops SC from getting sacked.
In between now and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup (January 2019) we will have the following:
- Two qualifier matches on 14 November (Myanmar) and 27 March (Kyrgyzstan). - 2018 AFC U-19 Championship (October 2018) with qualifiers starting 4 November 2017. - 1 and a half seasons of both the Indian Super League and I-League. - 2018 SAFF Championship (September 2018) - Potential Champions Cup (August 2018) - Two guaranteed FIFA match dates:
6-14 November 2017.
19-27 March 2018.
What do we think? Is this enough time for a new coach to maybe come in and create positive results for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup? How do we get rid of Constantine? He just qualified us for the World Cup, has the rankings boosted, and has us on a good run of form on paper. Hard to justify sacking him now. Who would we bring in as well?
SC should give rest to some players in next 2 qualifiers. Substitutes of Eugenson, Jackichand should be found and also Sunil, Gurpreet can be given rest with more chances to junior players.
Most importantly , find a replacement for Eugene.Isaac,Anirudh,Brandon,Nandhakumar etc should be given chances .Same for Jackichand , weve got options like Changgte, Rane,Kuruniyan,Pujary etc along with Udanta.
Comments
Hotels = 4K*14 = 56K
Match Ticket+other travel = 15K
Approx the journey is expected to cost around 1.2Lakh(give or take 20K)
That is considering we are planning for only 2 week trip... if we plan for a month long journey then it might be close to 1.75
Now we have to make some serious changes needs to be done to this team. SC Insistance on both failed Fullbacks, Eugene , Jackichand, bringing in Rafique when we are just 2-1 up with a frail defense just to shore it up? These are questionable decisions which will be exposed big time when playing even half decent teams.
If he was seriously a capable coach he will bring in a lot of faces from the u-23 squads than insist on the usual poor performers.
Pace is poor and complete lack of movement from Jeje, things picked up when a 30+ striker Balwant came on.
I have seen many members say that Stephen should be sacked,we win against lower teams etc,we don"t play our best players etc.
Guys,let me make it very clear that I also don"t like Stephen as a coach but surely the federation can"t sack him for the results which we have attained.I am gonna play Devil"s advocate and defend him.
First of all ,i know the fact that but we are minnows in the game of Football. We are a complete minnow in football.So,can we sack him after we win SAFF(World cup for South Asia) and after we qualify for our 4th(Asia Cup) in our History.Perhaps,for the first time on merit.When i say merit,I mean,not on face value or not through the back door entry.
Next is,when our draw for the group came(in this phase),were anyone of us genuinely thinking that we will qualify for the Asian Cup with two games to spare and had we not conceded today,we would have actually qualified without conceding a goal.Still, winning 4 out of 4 matches and qualifying for Asia cup is a big thing and a big achievement in my opinion.
I have observed many of the members saying that 12 game unbeaten streak,or prior to this match,11 match winning streak was against weaker nations.Guys,are we Germany,Argentina etc since we have the audacity,courage etc to call other teams weak.We belong to SAFF REGION(PERHAPS REGION WISE POOREST IN THE WORLD WHEN IT COMES TO FOOTBALL QUALITY)that we are saying other teams are weaker.We were ranked at 173 a year ago and today we are calling other teams weak.Even our, so called better teams have not not won Saff cup always.
During this,so called unbeaten streak,we have managed to beat Myanmar away and Kyrgyz Republic at home.No one in this forum,including me predicted us to get 6 points out of these two fixtures that too without conceding a goal and that too in AFC Qualifiers(When it mattered the most).
So,this streak is not just against the so called weaker teams.We have won some some challenging matches and matches where we were the underdogs as well(Myanmar away,Kyrgyzstan at home) that too in Asia Cup Qualifiers and lot was at stake.
Next,coming to his team selection etc.Guys,let"s ask ourselves a question?If we were a foreign coach and we would have been managing any club,country etc and managed 11 wins and a draw out of 12 matches,would we make changes.Honestly,answer this question. The answer is no.How can anyone make changes after winning 11 and drawing 1 match in 12 matches played.I will certainly not make any changes except for forced ones.There is famous English saying "don't fix it if it aint broke".
The last thing won which i want to share my opinion on which many of the members say that we don"t have a style,like possession,counter attack,high press etc.Let me ask a question?Do we actually think that with the players which we have got ,can we actually genuinely implement a style.Our players(not the u-17) but others are basic level players.They fail to fit into formations,they can hardly make 2 consecutive passes.Everyone saw their crossing.They lack pace,strength,technical ability,awareness,power,speed etc all the so called basic attributes of Football.So,no matter who ever plays in the current crop of players the Result would have been similar.
Inclusion of couple of players here and there wouldn"t have made a huge difference to our campaign.Let"s face it,there is no one who you could say can influence a Footballing game on his own against a half decent side in Asia.We have seen many a times.The best talent which we have got(other than u-17 boys),what it seems like is Gurpreet and Udanta.
The hard fact being(trust me, it pains me to say this).One was released by his European club after a game or two over a period of 2-3 years from a mediocre Euopean Club and other one gathers no transfer interest at Asian level club,let alone European level club.So,do we except them to Fit into a Formation Style,Then Fit into a Playing Style and then too Execute the instruction Day in Day out against some of the Better Teams in Asia.Its asking way too much.They are just not good enough.
Its a simple fact,we don"t have any players outside India,which means all our players play for Indian Clubs.Indian Clubs don"t qualify for Asian Champions league,which means we cant compete with teams in Asian Champions League.So,how can India compete with players of countries playing in Asian Champions League or European Clubs.Its foolish too expect India to be competitive against teams.Its pure and Simple logic.That is why we struggle.It proves our players aren"t good enough.
My point being,with the players we have got,even if you bring the best coach,he will find it difficult to improve our team.Having couple of players replaced wouldn"t have made any difference to our campaign because if you leave the u-17 team,there aren"t any Match Winners,Match Changers sitting out.They are also just marginally better or marginally worse,either way.So,in this regard i feel Stephen has done a great job in making us qualify for the Asian Cup with these players by winning 4 out of 4 matches and we should be content and happy on our Achievement.
Our U-17 Team promising and Skillful.They have given me hope.However,till they mature which will be in 2-4 yrs ,with the type of players we have,we should be happy if we win the SAFF CUP and celebrate if we manage to qualify for Asia Cup.Just simple fact.
Once last thing,is that many of our members have said that Rankings are not that important if we don"t do justice to them i.e if we don"t win against teams that are ranked below us.This was a fair point in my opinion till now.However,this notion will have to change after watching the u-17 guys play.I say this beacuse
India is a strange country in the way that if you want to improve the profile of a sport,investment in grass root level for it is not required.Only,a performance in that sport is required.Be it any sport.This is my opinion and observation.
See,Wrestling:-A medal by Sushil Kumar in 2008,whole profile of Wrestling has changed.The standard and facilities of Akhara(Wrestling centre) have the remained the same.Still only majorly existent in Haryana,Punjab.It hasn"t been the case that suddenly massive money was invested but profile of the sport has improved leaps and bounce.
Badminton:-Saina"s bronze at 2012 Olympics.All of a sudden,India is a super power in Badminton.Still,only one Academy is producing the players.So,my point being that still only one Academy is producing world class players but the profile of the sport has risen leaps and bounce.
Similarily,i feel the profile of the Football can increase by two ways:-
1)Senior National team does something extraordinary . eg) Qualify for World Cup or beat a high profile team.Both of which looks a distant dream.
2)The second being maybe a player or two sign for top European Clubs.The matches of which are telecasted. That basically means,the top 5 European Leagues.This is bound to create hype among the youth who will be seeing their heroes rubbing their shoulders with and against some of the best players of the World.This seems a more realistic possibility after seeing our u-17 team in comparison to our senior team qualifying for a World Cup.For our Young players to signed by Top Leagues/clubs our ranking has to improve even if our performances don"t match up with our rankings,ideally in top 70 in my opinion.
Semi decent performance by India U-23
1-0 Myanmar away
1-0 Kyrgyz at home
These results are the levels we always wanted to be at with having a league like ISL,investment etc and are no magical results from SC. We are getting lost by the twisted jump in ranking that we got and getting delusional. I think AIFF has money constraints around senior coach budget and also some sort of Nexus of Bhaichung/Venky/Abhishek etc which stops SC from getting sacked.
- Two qualifier matches on 14 November (Myanmar) and 27 March (Kyrgyzstan).
- 2018 AFC U-19 Championship (October 2018) with qualifiers starting 4 November 2017.
- 1 and a half seasons of both the Indian Super League and I-League.
- 2018 SAFF Championship (September 2018)
- Potential Champions Cup (August 2018)
- Two guaranteed FIFA match dates:
What do we think? Is this enough time for a new coach to maybe come in and create positive results for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup? How do we get rid of Constantine? He just qualified us for the World Cup, has the rankings boosted, and has us on a good run of form on paper. Hard to justify sacking him now. Who would we bring in as well?