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What should the India MNT priorities be?

Arsenalkid700Arsenalkid700 7 Points
edited February 2012 in Indian Football Team
I think it is time to bring this up. Our National Team is now going to be getting better as each year goes by and could (with some luck) be in the top 130 by the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. Anyway, with us getting better the AIFF will start setting up more friendlies for the national team to play in, as was the case here with games against Oman and Azerbaijan. I am expecting India to play 11 games this year. 5 being in the AFC Challenge Cup and the other 6 being from various friendlies. But then you got the Nehru Cup. Right now it is more likely that the AIFF will send the senior team to the cup in August which like with the Caribbean Trip last summer will cause trouble with the I-League teams who will be in pre-season and will use the excuse of that the Nehru Cup will not be during FIFA Match Dates. (In August the FIFA Match Day is August 15, 1 day) Also you will have players who will want a break because you have guys like Sunil, Nabi, and Gouramangi playing football for now over 2 years straight (Asian Cup 2011 training, I-League, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Caribbean Trip, Federation Cup, Durand Cup, SAFF Cup etc) and now obviously we are seeing the effects of this, Sunil and Nabi are injured and Gouramangi Singh is benched by Churchill now half the time. Its time for the AIFF to sit down and set the priorities for the national team.

Currently we play in the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers, AFC Challenge Cup, SAFF Cup, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers, Nehru Cup and soon AFC Asian Cup. That plus friendlies is a lot of games just for international players. This is not cricket! You cant be playing in tournaments all year round. It is time to look at these and set up which tournaments you want to play your Senior team in and which ones the under-19s or under-23s in.

Now right now the under-23s only play in the AFC U-22 Championship Qualifiers and AFC U-22 Championship. Soon it will be the Olympics but that is very little games. Also friendlies will rarely come at under-23 level so why not play the under-23s in a few of these tournaments and see how they would do. It will help them develop and it should be easier to call-up the under-23s without hassle from the I-League teams.

So here is how I think it should go... The SAFF Cup and Nehru Cup should go to the under-23 team. It wont effect our FIFA Ranking and it is good experience for the youngsters. Then the AFC Challenge Cup, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, and AFC Asian Cup belong to the Seniors. Also this would make more room in the Calendar for India to play better teams. Who would you rather play, Bhutan or Oman. Maldives or Azerbaijan. Not a tough choice.

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Comments

  • sabirsabir 46 Points
    If properly evaluated Indian Senior team= India U23 + 4-5 players

    In my opinion only five senior players -Subrata Paul, Gourmangi, Mehtab, Nabi, Sunil Chhetry are automatic choice. They can be rested when necessary especially in lowly ranked tournament like Nehru Cup. (Some second line 23 plus can be roped in like Sushil, Lester Fernandez if necessary) All other spots can be filled by U23 players like Jeje, Raju, Nirmal, Sanju, Arnab Mondal,Ralte, Shilton etc.
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  • Arsenalkid700Arsenalkid700 7 Points
    "sabir&quot wrote:
    If properly evaluated Indian Senior team= India U23 + 4-5 players

    In my opinion only five senior players -Subrata Paul, Gourmangi, Mehtab, Nabi, Sunil Chhetry are automatic choice. They can be rested when necessary especially in lowly ranked tournament like Nehru Cup. (Some second line 23 plus can be roped in like Sushil, Lester Fernandez if necessary) All other spots can be filled by U23 players like Jeje, Raju, Nirmal, Sanju, Arnab Mondal,Ralte, Shilton etc.

    You dont want to overload the regular under-23 players that play on the Senior Team regularly. When I say for tournaments like the SAFF Cup and Nehru Cup we should play our u23 team I mean the u23 minus the core ones like Raju, Jeje etc because they already play automatically on the senior squad and you dont want to burn them out. Look at Jeje. He has played so many games in his first year of pro football and now look, out of the AFC Challenge Cup.
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  • shankarshankar 2600 Points
    "arsenalfan&quot wrote:
    You dont want to overload the regular under-23 players that play on the Senior Team regularly. When I say for tournaments like the SAFF Cup and Nehru Cup we should play our u23 team I mean the u23 minus the core ones like Raju, Jeje etc because they already play automatically on the senior squad and you dont want to burn them out. Look at Jeje. He has played so many games in his first year of pro football and now look, out of the AFC Challenge Cup.
    <!-- s:bow-plusone: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/bow/plusone.gif" alt=":bow-plusone:" title="PlusOne" /><!-- s:bow-plusone: --> ya this should be the way our national team should play with all our u-23 minus core players and their place shall be taken by best u-19 players like brandon, narzary who have impressed in u-19 team to play in the tournaments like saff cup and nehru cup at least...this way it will look more like a pipleline to the senior team via u-19 to u-23 to main team and also could impress the team via i-league performances as well
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  • Arsenalkid700Arsenalkid700 7 Points
    "shankar&quot wrote:
    "arsenalfan&quot wrote:
    You dont want to overload the regular under-23 players that play on the Senior Team regularly. When I say for tournaments like the SAFF Cup and Nehru Cup we should play our u23 team I mean the u23 minus the core ones like Raju, Jeje etc because they already play automatically on the senior squad and you dont want to burn them out. Look at Jeje. He has played so many games in his first year of pro football and now look, out of the AFC Challenge Cup.
    <!-- s:bow-plusone: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/bow/plusone.gif" alt=":bow-plusone:" title="PlusOne" /><!-- s:bow-plusone: --> ya this should be the way our national team should play with all our u-23 minus core players and their place shall be taken by best u-19 players like brandon, narzary who have impressed in u-19 team to play in the tournaments like saff cup and nehru cup at least...this way it will look more like a pipleline to the senior team via u-19 to u-23 to main team and also could impress the team via i-league performances as well

    Thats the idea. We need more exposure for u19 and u23 players. u19 barely plays so giving these tournaments to them will surely prepare them for seniors.
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  • Arsenalkid700Arsenalkid700 7 Points
    I am bringing this up again because after the AFC Challenge Cup performance we all know that this is an issue.

    I still think that the India senior team should play friendlies, AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers, AFC Challenge Cup and done.

    Let the SAFF Cup and Nehru Cup be for the under-23s
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