 So and welcome to a brand new episode of 420grams here on newsclick.in, where a full house today Ranidhi Singh is back in the house, Arjun Pandit is joining us from rainy Mumbai and Veybhav Raganandan is in studios. Firstly Pandit, how is the scene? Man, how is Bombay? I hope things are okay. Surviving? Sir, my room is close to the road and at about 9 a.m. there were cars and bikes on it. Now it's close to about 12 30 p.m. I can see boats and I can see people swimming, breast-style, free-stoke. Anyone who may be Olympic qualification type? We might not see a Michael Fess, we might see a Michael Tambay. Okay, so we're here because yesterday was a big night of football obviously the women's World Cup final was on but we were a little bit sidetracked because India was also playing their first home game of the 2019 calendar year at Ahmedabad against Tajikistan the opening game of the Hero Intercontinental Cup 2019. It wasn't the result we expected. We went into the game fairly confident that at home under a new coach with a new set of players and seemingly some shape the team taking some sort of shape we were expecting a positive result against Tajikistan as it turned out four to India went down four goals in the second half blew a two-goal advantage. Opening comments from you guys starting with you Pandit what do you make of the game? What do you make of Ahmedabad the arena all of that? Yeah bro before we get to the game because game key though of course that'll be the focus of our show I honestly enjoyed this entire stadium here because I for one have always been championing the cause of small stadiums in football where the supporter group is close to the ground and also because you know given the popularity of the game in this country we are not always going to be filling in big stadiums so this always looked like you know a lot of people have come in the atmosphere is there and we guys you know we have that bias because we've grown up watching games at Ambedkar stadium so we know exactly how it feels and which is why I feel this venue should be persisted with because agar apne if you remember with Ambedkar also it was only when India started winning regularly those Nehru Cups that the crowd started going up and you know and then it became like an atmosphere a festival of sorts I remember one of those Nehru Cups had to jump the gate and the finally no ticket came it was easy. I feel the same can be done with this ground you know and the ground looks very good to play on the dimensions of the ground look very good to play on in fact that looks better than what is Ambedkar as well looks a little more international quality and so yeah I just hope the AFF persists with this man because this can really help us in a long way you need that fortress man I'm sorry Bengaluru or Calcutta or Mumbai they are not your fortresses so far what you see this can be made into a fortress I mean I would be delighted if we were to make Ambedkar the fortress again that would be ideal but I guess both didn't okay anyway so stadium apart hopefully there will be more such options and I think so this guy Odit Sheet at Trans stadia has also been at it for a for quite a while with 10-15 years and he's put together it's a privately owned stadium this venue multi-purpose stadium with retractable stands they've used basically technology to make sure that it's you get I guess maximum bang for your buck out of it maximum utilization and yet the playing surface looks pretty tight pretty good pretty well maintained good enough for sort of international games to happen on also the look and feel of the look and feel of the stadium is also quite nice it seems very modern and sort of up there in terms of the kind of on television the lights were looking good yeah like a lot of times you know I feel we falter on television why doesn't half as good as because lights at the stadium don't match up to what your broadcast quality should be this time the lights were playing a part and I remember when I went for Kerala blasters the dressing rooms everything was really good under jacket dressing rooms there's the same venue which has broke a buddy like about 10 yards okay they do broke buddy there as well so what you were saying that retractable stadium you know and get the most out of the money put into it at the max not fit is good it sort of sets up a model for clubs as well because clubs in India don't own their own grounds at the moment we know that there are a couple Bangalore for example Gokulam Chennai they're all trying to get into the act find the land to build a stadium and then maintain their own venue because at least it gives the club some sort of something to hold on to some sort of foundation from which to grow community structure out of so yeah let's hope these guys keep at it getting to the game man what do you make of how India played and and we'll let's start with in fact we had Renady on a little while earlier so let's start with his initial assessment of how the game went and then we'll come out to you for me if you see the game it was not a great game from India we can play better a lot of new guys new coach of yes in Thailand they have done well but yesterday we were hoping that they will do it's a first match we have to give it we have to give time to those young players but we really have to do we got two good goals individual brilliance again from Sunil Sunil said three what a beautiful penalty kick and the throw poke just in just in front of him there were two defenders and he still managed to top up and scored such a beautiful goal but then other than that the other young players they have to pull up their socks they have to play way better than what they did yesterday and I'm sure they are young good talented players it's just that they have to gel well and this is where Venkates assistant Indian assistant coach who have seen all those players for many years I think he has to give the right information so that it helps the the new coach so we have to give time to the players and the coach but they have to do it you know because people memories are very very you know of course they have done well they have been people have been talking about but after yesterday's match again there will be a lot of pressure actually exactly what you said the remedy where you said that they were dominating the ball and they had all the possession even in the first half we can agree that Tajikistan were building a lot of the play and actually had a few chances also so you think in that sort of situation maybe putting someone holding midfielder someone with a slightly more as a shield in front of the defense because that seemed to be a gap between the midfield and the defense where our boys were doing well going up but not really doing much when it came to winning the ball back and I think right from the first half right from the first half I think they were pressing quite high if you see we got the penalty we got the penalty through a counter attack so we could see that you know we were defending we started pressing from from our midfield so even if we win the ball we still have a long way to go so but we have to press the coach like we still give a time but but the players they have to gel as quickly as possible otherwise it will be a problem so so let's see you know in the next match if they can do better and we have seen that the young defender and and Adil Khan their coach were trying but but I think they both need to have a better match so the coach will I'm sure coach have seen what what what those guys can can do and then in the next match they will the new I'm sure the new the defenders like Sandesh Dingan will come in so Arjun basically game of two halves or did you throughout the game did you see Tajikistan like what Andy was saying that Tajikistan had a lot of chances control the ball and well they got the dividends later yeah I kind of agree it's not a game of two halves man I think Tajikistan was dominating us on the ball from the word go you know and as far as possession was concerned as far as all the space that was being given to them they were dragging the game out wide as much as possible so India was of course being opened up a lot more in the game he's right man the the first move that led to the Chhetri goal that was a good move to watch a good combination as we see between Mandar and Chante a lot of that combination going and getting that penalty for India and Chhetri you know that shows you class experience and where he is mentally as a player that you know opening game of the competition three minutes into the opening game three minutes sir three minutes may nerve that chip is around you know going inside though if you see Chhetri's reaction after taking that penalty you say I hope pole been a lakjai top like that it went inside you know so that really set the tone and and coach would have been happy because given that you've used a very young team and I'm feeling this will be the young team going forward the first 15 minutes of the game is when we can really capitalize owing to that you know all that huge things with it which is a lot of pace which is that you know that point to do something you know that eagerness and that hurriedness so that that's in a good thing and the second goal was great man I mean that again shows you the space he's in man Mandar and Chante again combining well along left flank and and surprising because on the right you are saying the most experienced campaigner there and possibly totally deliberately but not as much as the combination was happening on the left and yeah I thought I found this second goal to be a bit fortunate Udanta put the ball in from the right and he was looking very clearly for the run of Chante at the far post which he completely completely mishit that cross hit it like six yards behind Chante here to change direction go back get the ball and then try try and do something else and fortunately enough we had players in the box on in that one situation and he did he they did well enough to manage to get the ball back in and of course Chaitri Bizali was left completely unmarked in the box so on both sides I think on both sides the defenders I think didn't turn up I mean I don't want to be too harsh on young Narendra Gallo who's only 18 playing his first game for the senior national team but there were clear moments when the communication the conversation the positioning the sort of I don't know mental switched onness and all of it was on mark of a team that hasn't played too much together right and that will happen and the not only have they played too much together a lot of them have not played much of international football here huh adil khan is now three games old or four games old narendra gallo first game rahaul bheke two games old mandar out this how this I think one or two games old then your entire midfield amarjit again two three games old this hell two games old so matter we had matter you have double figures in terms of experience as far as caps earned for the india team only udanta and chetri with you only two and gurpreet of course are the guys who have gone on to get you know a sizable number of caps all these guys will take time yeah I actually like the fact that the coach doesn't care about that which means he seems like a guy who's not very happy he's not to bother about the short term gains short term results you know a coach thinking pressure you know he's not bothered about that he is busy trying to see what system works there he's busy trying to see which player can be fit for india because his aim is a long term aim he how we can continue our growth in each your world cup qualifier also will be a part of that on cat he knows we're not doing anything in the world cup qualifiers I mean up in here I've been there but there also the focus will be on gameplay on how you handle certain situations the focus will be on the 2023 Asian cup qualifiers I think that is where he really wants to put his plans into and make it happen yeah which is the same not the qualification process for the world cup as well as the the next Asian cup is the same process and essentially the group that we have I think the target has to be to get out of that group as among the top two teams so to make it through to the final round of qualifying which will be from there to make it to the world cup I think currently for India is near impossible but but making it out of this group top two will give us a spot in the 2023 Asian cup and that definitely has to be the target so I'm not I'm also not and I've never been big on this whole results orientedness I also agree and I think we all agree that the process is more important whether it's the men's team or the Indian women's team it's the processes that are more important to and and building that fan base so in that sense I think the coaches have got it right because they're trying to play a style of football that fans enjoy playing for what it's worth losing 4-2 is better than losing 1-0 for what it's worth at least but that said after the first 15-20 minutes like you said where India were pretty good right creating something at least going forward and before the opposition team had the chance to kind of figure out this idea of winning the ball in the middle and then spraying it out to these pacy guys in front after that they shut us down completely and the second half it felt like nobody showed up whether it's I mean I thought Sahel had a great game till not a great game but given that he was a bright spark for me but other than Sahel I feel like nobody turned up yesterday I mean the third goal that went through Gurpreet's legs that there was very little power in the shot there was no no real angle on it it wasn't directed into the corner it was a it was it was just a low shot straight at him that went through his legs I've always like it's as it has it huh yeah full on I always find it like really these this going between the legs thing for a goalkeeper is like I mean I understand that it's always something that you can critique and maybe it is an error but I also find it a little bit harsh yeah because no no it's one thing if you're putting the ball it's one thing when you are it's one thing when you look at the gap between the keeper's legs and then put the ball through there because he's coming out and he's got his legs spread or something this guy is standing on the line wide like and the guy the angle from which the second the third goal the third was a cross from the right slid in finished I think anyway I think it was a third goal huh the angle from where he's hitting the ball the only way he should be able to beat the goalkeeper is at the far post if he's hit a perfect shot right in the corner right like this like the strike you were talking about the Swedish striker hitting from the other side that that should be the only goalkeeper especially when your goalkeeper is experienced international who's played yeah so I mean a howler of a game for most of the guys no yeah bro I kind of agree with you man and again going back to the same part that's all part of the process I think there is the part of the process there's something known as suffering right when you suffer as a team I'm telling you man all these things play a big part you suffer as a team the one good thing was that when you've played a four-man defense in your four-man defense three of them are out of position right because he is trying to find which player fits in where of course Sandesh Karnigal didn't help Anas Karnigal did not help Ranoi Haldar's Nigel did not help right all three were pulled out did not feature in this game because they had some minor niggles or something in the build up right now so you've got Gallot who's a fullback by profession playing center back in his very first game you've got Adil Khan who's still finding his feet midfielder by profession still finding his feet as a stopper back and then you made Mandar Rao this I who honestly speaking we've never really spoken much about his defensive capabilities other than his work rate you can up and down but defensive capabilities my work rate is just one part of it right so you had three guys of that four-man defense who were completely out of position and then you had Mr Rao Beke who to be fair has not made the best of start to his international career after all the who ha and this and that was going on for that one year before the Asian Cup and we were also part of that who ha but it was nice to see the yeah anyway so I guess one talking about the defense my my question to you is we for many years this has been a concern right building from the back composure communication all of these things which are critical to how football team plays we've always not been very good at right and now here is a coach coming in and like I'm not trying to rush him or anything like that he's trying to figure out who his players are and what his combinations are and what works best but he has gone out and said that he wants to play a style of football that is attractive and somehow attractive football seems to be absolutely contradictory to playing solid defensively which in my mind again doesn't fit maybe maybe it's because well I'll tell you about this coach as much as I have seen I said he knows how to handle the media he knows how to get whatever press needs to be said because he understands it's an integral part of you know being a part of the national team and of course trying to implement your plans because the people at the top who are of course you know signing on your checks and then of course making sure everything goes for you when you want it are very particular about the kind of PR that surrounds their team and a part of that PR which was not fulfilled by Stephen Constantine he understands exactly how to do it so we are playing and we're trying these things but if you see five man midfield three in the middle it's pretty evident that he wants to play with a solid defense that is more important sir your five man midfield is playing right up front and that is a major issue for this team going forward the usage of Sunil is something I think we were talking about constantly on our blog also yesterday that's Sunil and we've said this on a previous couple of shows also that Sunil playing up front is a real waste because he likes to get on the ball and you're playing him as a yeah but then how what sort of a system you talked if you like a five man you know and also you put him in also what is the impact of this I agree that you want to pack the center of the pitch but the five man midfield where two of your midfielders are Changte and Udanta who may or may not who may or may not help on the defensive side of things right as opposed to a holy or even for that matter Ashik of what what we saw of Ashik Corunyan in at the Asian Cup their work rate willingness to help out and just just staying switched on I mean there were periods of the game in the second half where you didn't see either wing the the boys were they were not there and also like I got to say Udanta must be pretty disappointed because the one cross he hit right Chitri scuffed it and sent it sent it to Bombay from Ahmedabad and that was actually there was a pretty I mean that part I don't think that would be turn out to be a critical moment in the game no but 3-0 high or 3-1 high-trick in the bag and he would have wrapped the game up and suddenly testimony a testament to how good Holy Charan Naziri was and how very different he was in approach to what you had from a Changte Holy Charan Naziri's work rate can never be questioned by he was up and down up and down always making sure there was no gap on his end right so right Holy Charan Naziri would always be fitting into that system so credit to Stephen Constantine that he found a system that sort of cooperated his best players going forward Udanta JJ Chitri and then of course Ashik came in towards somehow the other Changte is completely the opposite Changte gives you nothing in terms of work rate when compared to Holy Charan Naziri and his defensive capabilities he gives you positions out wide but beyond that he does after that position out wide some flashes of decent stuff though like I mean whatever good stuff did happen happened from the left wing so let's not take all the credit away from from from that part also he had a fullback with him who doesn't play fullback Mander Rao so you know meaning also both of them I think yeah I mean for what is expected that the right would have done a better job considering both of them play for Bangalore but my point is you're looking at the left what they're doing ahead and what they're doing behind and that's what I'm saying sir you have to do two things over there because and the overlap was going on between midfield fullback and combination so I went ahead and so on but defensively I think we were all over the shop yesterday I mean it was really defensively you were all over also because your midfield was not closing down I think that's a that's something like I mean so here's a question to both of you was there sort of a lack of plan at half time and did they come out of the break sort of overconfident that your victory is in the bag now we have to protect this lead and kind of they were shell shocked by the way Uzbekistan came that's point number one Tajikistan sorry the second question is if you look at the impact that the substitutes had on both sides and subs are extremely important in a game when you're playing in a place like Ahmedabad high levels of humidity, it's raining, it's a hot weather, you're tired, you're playing a high intensity game and very soon into the second half we were back on parity so the momentum is with the other side all the more reason why your subs have to come in and make an impact you look at the impact that the Tajik subs had goals assist and you you look at our side where except for that Jerry's clearance of the of the line which would have been a fifth goal which was straight at the goalkeeper that was it was a chance what did he do with the chances is the point and Jerry also was extremely lucky because the Tajik number 20 I don't know his name but he's sort of very half heartedly what Delao's shot he had time he had space if he had waited for Jerry to slide fully he could have chipped the ball in anywhere and finished it but they're also young players getting used to it and in the first half we were really lucky that Tajikistan didn't do anything in the box in front of goal otherwise it could have been five six seven and I say something this is supposedly the easiest team of the three you have dpr koria you have siria siria kohamsa but she doesn't they fight dpr koria sir is a I would say dpr koria is the strongest team in this top four on this in this four yeah and they will be a lot more physical than what Tajikistan was Tajikistan to be honest wasn't that physical on the ball I don't know about that I think later in the game they did start like I mean they were ease I mean well I don't know how physical I'm saying physicality I'm not saying that whether they're covering ground and closing spaces they were doing that and they were always there which is why whenever they would get the ball or whenever they would lose the ball it never seemed like India was breaking on a counter and you can you suddenly take them apart like that right yeah except that one right in the beginning yeah except right at the beginning when Udanta just just on sheer pace and and he got again yeah so that's early stages right once they settled in yeah yeah yeah after that they didn't leave it they didn't leave it I think like again like I think to answer your question about whether the Indian team eased off or they went in over confident in the second half I don't think that's the case at all I just think that in the second half Tajikistan just put the chances away they created a similar number of chances in the first half they had one very clear opportunity in the first half when they're in the Mr. Header it's sort of skid off the surface or something and they had three chances in the first half I mean one very like I mean absolutely that one should have been buried in that could have been two one or one or whatever the score was right now so I don't believe that but I do think that yeah the subs is like a thing because you would have expected that even at two all you would have either try to close down the game or go out and win it outright yeah win it outright but there was nothing neither of those things yeah I don't know man I don't know what you guys think but like trying players out and hoping to develop a system is one thing but going in which with what seems like no plan at all is a completely different thing and I don't think that like the result is so unimportant that you can literally just do whatever you want see now we have seen so many so many people turning up towards the match nobody wants to to see in their in their losing and that's also with the team like Kazakhstan so yes we we know that we it's a new coach and he says it's a very good coach we have to give time but but in football people will not they want to see in their win with so much so with so much support and hype and we have seen the fans and they were not happy but when you're losing at least the Amodabad fans I think that they were supporting brilliant thinking that this India have done well in the recent past in the recent month for years and so now in second match this will be a tough match for India and they have to the players have to take the pressure I think I sort of agree with Renédy here wherein like yes it's true that this is a process and we should not be results oriented but at a time when like people are starting to watch football paying interest in the Indian team and there's crowds coming in they do want to see the team win it does make a difference I mean I don't I don't know if necessarily that's true it's like the same suffering that Pandit was talking about how many years have we been suffering there are new fans then if that means the process is part of it where you will of course of course you will not be losing all your games to get to the Asian as he knows that yeah he's given himself a window in the end of the year and to his luck and which is great for Indian fans and we've got a solid four teams by the way one of those New Zealand guys the Indian born guy would be he's gone off to Bayern playing for Bayern reserves so maybe they were not so fuzzy after all anyway that's a digression what was it gonna ask you so actually so intercontinental cup essentially it's a we're using FIFA windows it's a friendly tournament so completely agree that in when we play friendlies we should not care about the results the results should matter when the consequence of the game matters right like if you're playing the final game then obviously the result makes a difference guaranteed and the US showed this absolutely clearly through the through the women's world cup man that like results do matter and performance matters as much so even though yesterday they were like Tobin Heath was a bit like yeah you were talking about players pulling their socks up but coming back to the point yeah last last little bit where do we go from here how do we get better starting with you man do you think i think this is something again i i'm just bringing up things that just bringing out questions from what steamath said in his post match pressure he said that players need to play a lot more volume of matches has to be much bigger for them to get better do you think some of the young players some of the players who are perhaps hitting their early 20s it's time maybe for some of them to go abroad and get some experience try and look for clubs abroad get a little bit more in terms of game iq steamath is a coach we have we have coach in highest level and we need to play more games as a team more than going individual go abroad i think we should try and play as much games as possible so that we as a team can gel we saw that yesterday other than playing from the back we were we couldn't gel enough we couldn't take enough or we couldn't press high enough at the final third so this will only improve by playing many more matches together and we have seen the sahal a player like sahal amarjit they have done well in last two three games but they have to continue performing or give the same level of the match in every single match which they couldn't do yesterday i am sure they will should they will be able to do to better than yesterday's match so udanta singh why i feel he should go abroad one of the players who needs to go abroad because here you know that a little bit of me how do i put it there and i might be wrong comfort factor so you need to go in a space you need to go in an environment where you are held accountable for all the spiel that you're doing up front so when you go in that high environment and everyone else around you is doing it you as a result pick it up that consistency you know that brutal consistency that is needed to succeed in international why is messi so good because of his brutal consistency bro you give him an inch and he will always find a corner of the goal or the other you know people don't say messi great because and chitri is the best example for any of the young players in the squad i mean he went abroad for two stints both stints he was fairly aware before going that he would not get much playing time if at all he got playing time it would be on the basis of what he did over there not on the basis of his reputation not on the basis of his being india india star at that point or anything like that and he came back from each of those stints at kansas city and at sporting a completely physically changed player mentally changed player i mean his decision making from that level on has just been somewhere else i think that just the physical bit is actually even if that changes that's also in itself see i don't know man like not in terms of like going to the gym and like lifting yeah i know just being able to like judge situations where you may have to get physical where you will get a physical i mean you will challenge your challenge and encountering that and just that decision so so before chitri went abroad training methods and training systems in india were very different right that has changed dramatically as we have said many times with the coming of the isl and all these top level trainers and coaches and all that so the physical training element i think the fitness element today indian players don't lack so much like udanta knows when he's taking on a defender that he probably has the pace to take him on sheer pace right but what he does once he's taken the defender like in that chance that we're talking about he's first he's cut it inside right but his second touch has then taken him back out yeah now i don't know whether that was a bad touch or he just couldn't decide whether he wanted to bang on down and put in a cross or go for goal on his own in the end he did neither in either like even if it was even if it was a deliberate touch it was incorrect like because you already made indecision you've already been in no i mean he saw chitri banging down the middle right so so automatically he's now thinking okay now do i go for goal or do i play chitri in the idea is that chitri is there to draw that man so that udanta has continues to have the free run at goal right that's at least what chitri is trying to do so one of the two players will get free when you reach the box i just feel so i just feel barring the technicalities uh space you're not surrounded by players who are giving you that space and freedom because of your reputation where they don't give a shit about your reputation and as soon as you get the ball one guy is coming at you with a flying elbow over the sliding tackle and if you make one or two bad crosses your 10 members behind you are riling you up and giving it to you bro you need to put yourself in a comfortable situation and if you don't do it now then when will you do it or are you sitting there at the comfort level you know that there is work there when money is coming club is working hard it's good enough for india level isle you're shining but when it comes out internationally so sir then you mean we only see you in patches so thailand game second half we saw him you know after that you saw how good you saw the piercing crosses or the balls and it's the same with the mdabad as well so someone needs to advise this kid and needs to go and needs to go and start trying for clubs abroad i don't know if he's doing it maybe i'm wrong he's already trying it but i'm sorry with all due respect to bangalore fans he needs to move out for the betterment of his game to go to another level in international football we'll wrap this up for now we'll be back with a live blog of course of the india versus dpr korea north korea game on july the 13th hopefully the team will gel a little better together and be able to do better in that game of course we'll be following the intercontinental cup and all the other developments in indian football very closely thanks for watching guys thank you all for your time see you next week