 Thanks for tuning in to a brand new episode of 420gramsonnewsclick.in where we talk about everything Indian football and if we're talking Indian football, well of course the most current thing that everyone is talking about is the recently concluded World Cup draw for the 2022 World Cup and the Asian Cup 2023. I've got with me in studio Siddhanta and partner in crime and of course joining us from Manipur on a solid Wi-Fi signal Wi-Fi! is the legend of Indian football himself, former India captain, Renédy Singh. Guys, before I get your comments, I'm just going to tell you what India's group is in this World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying. We've been grouped with Kathar, Oman, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and India being the fifth team in that group. So before anything, Renédy just purely on the group. Would you say India would consider themselves lucky to be drawn in such a group? In a World Cup qualifying, I think you will not get any easy team. Of course, yes, Bangladesh is the one I think which is beatable but Afghanistan is also going to be equally tough. So you are not going to get any easy group at all. So whatever group we get, I think we just have to keep on going and fight for it. No, but if you take a look at the other groups, Renédy bhai. I mean of course you've got Oman, you've got Kathar which are the Asian champions but you can think of getting maximum points versus Afghanistan versus Bangladesh which in turn would sort of tell you that you have a good chance of making the Asian Cup. It's not the World Cup we're focusing on, but the Asian Cup. Yes, but then we have to see that Oman, of course, yes, we can fight but Kathar is a team where Asian champions and we all know that how they beat Japan. So it's going to be one really tough opponent but Afghanistan, they may be on 149 in the ranking but ranking doesn't work but Afghanistan is a good site. And if you see the last matches we have played against Afghanistan, it was not easy at all. So again, at home, yes, at home Oman, Afghanistan and Bangladesh at home we should be able to get a result, a point. But going Afghanistan away is going to be one hell of a match. So it's going to be a tough one but having said that we should just start concentrating on a single match first match again Oman is going to be the most important one and if you can get a positive result at home that that moral boost will help all the players to come out and I'm sure the last matches we have played against Syria and they did well, if we could have avoided that penalty but they have done well in place. I can see that not the first two matches but the confidence they get from those matches are huge. Bro, thoughts on the group? Thoughts on the group? Am I wrong in saying that we should consider ourselves lucky because you take a look at the other groups, man. So there's no Japan, there's no Korea. But you have to get one of those big boys. So you got Asian champions. The way the pots are drawn up, it's based a little bit on the rankings. So because India are now 101st and in the top, let's say, 16-18 teams in Asia, then the third pot. So it was expected that we'd get two from lower down and two from higher up now which the higher up teams are that essentially is your luck factor. I think in Oman it's a slightly luckier in that sense but like Ranidhi is saying, I don't think there are any easy games for India at this level. Even going away to Bangladesh is not going to be an easy game. Yes, yes. Depending on, also I don't know off the top of my head what the list of fixtures is in when the matches are. The first games are I think September 5th and 10th. Yes. But after that what happens, I mean, it's also a long spread out qualifying schedule that will happen. Start in September 2019, go on till June-July 2020. So over the course of this one year, essentially the new coach and like we're saying now he's established his top 11 for I think going forward at least for this qualifying campaign. So he'll really have to concentrate on now the tactical elements and the fine points of how he wants his team to play because this is very different from what you've had leading up to this. Yeah, fair enough. Very results oriented. We have to get points out of it. We have to get points out of as many games as we can essentially. Right, so of course as Siddhant was talking about it from September 2019 to June-July 2020 is the entire qualification process for the World Cup and the Asian Cup. I'm just going to take you through how this plays out. Now eight group winners, that means a total of eight groups have been made. Eight group winners and four best runners-up advanced to the 2023 Asian Cup directly. And then of course move on to the final round of the World Cup qualifiers. And then the next best 24 teams to compete for the remaining 12 slots in the 2023 Asian Cup. September 2019 to June 2020. So I'd be right in saying then that next best 24 teams. That is our aim. If we make it to round three of World Cup qualifiers then nothing like it. Because and I honestly speaking on this group I honestly feel there's a chance of doing it because of the way you've played against Oman in the past. I know Qatar I'm not even saying anything about it but because of the way you've played against Oman, Afghanistan, Bangladesh. You actually have a realistic chance of thinking to go on to round three of World Cup qualifiers. I mean that should be the aim. So the ultimate aim should be to get into the 2023 Asian Cup. Yeah it will be great if we can do that. But the guys the way they have played in the last match against Syria if we can continue doing that I think we should be able to. But then again you know this is the one good thing about this World Cup qualifying is in ten months eight matches coach will have a lot of time to organize a match after match. You know it's not like nowadays where you play in one month you finish almost all the match. So there will be a lot of time where the coach is going to organize. The only scary thing is I think our defence still looks shaky. Now that's the main thing. If the coach can rectify that or if the players can improve I think because to play against Oman away and to play against Qatar it's not going to be easy. We have to be compact and we have to play as a team. We are going front we are doing well. We are playing attacking football but to play against the best team we have to defend well as well. Yeah I'll just take you guys through the fixture list now how it plays out. September 5th is our first game versus Oman at home. Then September 10th is versus Qatar away and then 15th October Bangladesh home 14th November Afghanistan away. 19th November versus Oman away. 26th March Qatar at home and then we ended with 4th June Bangladesh away. The only thing I'd say in this fixture list is that if say we had a Stephen Constantine and we had a team which was settled under him which was a settled line-up you knew who your top 11 top 14 are and your defence was also worked on. I would say it's a brilliant fixture for us because you play against Oman and Qatar away because you're a settled line-up you can get more positives out of that game rather than negatives. Now because you brought up that entire defence scenario and our defence is all over the place already I'll be as honest as I can be. You play Oman and Qatar away and they take over you and they pump in the goals in your first two games. I feel the confidence dip there is a factor and that could play into your games where you want those three points versus Bangladesh versus Afghanistan and that could affect it. Maybe going back for a second in terms of we talked about what Egos, T-matches, short-term goals with the Indian national team are going to be and what we were talking about was exactly this qualifying campaign and how the target has to be to or the aim has to be to make it through to the next round of World Cup qualifiers. I mean let's be pretty clear we have no chance of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. But round three is a positive. Yeah but making it, yeah exactly. So basically making the step up from the top 16 teams in Asia to the top 12 teams in Asia. Those are the small sort of baby steps that we are looking at making and direct qualification for the Asian Cup would be a fantastic I think outcome. That said, if we go through to play the next round of qualifying matches the national team gets a couple of extra games so that's not a negative either. Fair enough. So especially in terms of the country where players are not getting enough match time I think there's no harm in playing an extra couple of international games there's like a sort of playoff scenario or something on the line because there's that extra motivation also for the players. Fans are a little more excited and into it. Overall I think everything gets a bit over Philip. Coming back to your point about the defence I want to ask you Randy do you have in your mind a back five goalkeeper and then four in front that you think are the best five who should be playing for India? Yeah it's a tough one. Of course I'm not going to name but then if you see coach have tried all the defenders in India and we have to agree with that he has tried his best so now he has to select from those players in those three matches where he has to select the best but of course it's sad that Sandesh has injured but the way we are playing now with the new coach I think he likes to play from the back and to play from the back technically sound defender to play all those long passes short passes you know to be more it's not like you know you just clear it and you go up you have to play from the back and in India I think we still need good quality defenders if we have to play the same style against Oman or Qatar. But Randy if you just talk about defence just purely defence I'm not bothered about what they're doing with the ball defenders where are you? If you just talk about guys who put their body on the line tactically know where to be yeah so this is whatever the defenders like they have coach have tried about 7-8 defenders already and honestly in India if you look anywhere you don't have any more defenders who can play at this level or you have to wait for 3-4 years to come new defenders to come up so he has to make whatever we have he has to bring out the best from those defenders so it's not going to be easy at all and it's sad for him though but the way we are going forward if we can do the same at the defence area we will be able to so that's why we said that first match against Oman at home with the most important one if we don't get a good result going away Qatar and we know that it's going to be difficult after that we have Bangladesh and Afghanistan we won't be able to win that because the conference will be low and so first one positive result against Oman we will clear out everything essentially set the tempo for how the entire campaign might go and if we remember actually we had a disastrous sort of qualifying campaign last time where even against Guam we can sort of get a result so really of course it's a completely new look team also I think very few of those players except Sunil Gurpreet a couple of guys everyone else is new I think there's a chance for a guy like Anwar for example to come in he's injured yeah so I mean there's also time the good thing is pre-season will happen and then season will start so the players will get some element of match fitness sharpness all of that will start happening by the time we're into September I think they'll be preparing for the Super Cup this time is happening as a pre-season tournament I think that starts September 15th so I don't know how they're looking at scheduling I mean these issues I don't know man I don't know how much there is hardly any time I think coach have tried all the defenders and he's going to select the best from those from what he's got there's no time to see any other players so he's going to select the best so we're in agreement essentially on that except those players that are coming back from injury essentially everyone else in this squad will be in the same squad where's the player I'm saying there's no player there's no place you don't feed the clubs so where will the players come from I agree with that I'll ask you this now keeping in mind that you know I know what Siddharth was talking about pre-season is happening your Super Cup is happening but Super Cup ISL iLeague the difference is that when you're going to play Katar, when you're playing Oman the difference is on the ground so then if you put in a new boy there they might just completely feel out of place so I'm asking you this what we've seen from this coach is that there's a lot going forward you've discovered a Changte Anta and Changte are coming in from the wings but what would you rather have Sahal more solidity in defence or more in terms of trying going forward I will still want to go forward keeping in the mind that defender helping the midfielders we shouldn't change I'm sure the coach is not going to change the style in a big way of course yes we will be concentrating a lot more in defence when we play against Oman and Katar but the playing style will be almost the same and it should be in our time when we started it's all about defending defending 90 minutes but now at least these players are going up front well so to go up front well the defenders that's why we need a little more quality if you're going up front you're also leaving space at the back and if you're leaving space at the back you need top quality defenders to cover that these are the only 6-7 defenders we have so like I said we have to take the best out from them and play as a team so defenders are still I feel that they can play more as a team and more compact they should be able to help well the same style of game but defender playing more compact and helping up front we had we were doing this live commentary the other day while the India-Siriya game was going on who watched much love to Olivier more than 10 people watched so we're really excited two of them are from my family the rest are from news click anyway so Rishi was the midfielder but predominantly played as a left back Rishi Kapoor ex-Mohan Bagan and India he was with me he was with me in Mohan Bagan so two things we were asking him one is what do you make of of course none of us are on the pitch so we don't really know what exact conversations they're having but what do you make of the communication which is being discussed in defence I feel that we're not talking to each other we're just looking at the ball there's a lot of and if you're pressing high and you're ball watching that's when like there's somebody is thinking the ball over the top they have no idea everyone is sort of wondering who's going to cover the ball who's going to close the line who's going to mark the player that cohesiveness is not there that's one and the second question was I've forgotten first question was long enough see now those three matches coach have tried when you try different defenders you get that combination it takes time so from now on I don't think he's going to do any experiment with the defenders so whoever best before he selects until they get injured they are going to be there for a long time and that's the key ok, Reindy just one last thing I know we've spoken a lot about defence not touching it anymore now this is on the best player in the team and the captain of the team Sunil Chaitri now you've seen the way the coach and his system is he likes playing a 5 man midfield he likes playing 3 in the middle and 2 out wide that being Changte and Udanta which means only space for Sunil Chaitri to play as up front as a striker if he plays up front as a striker A, are you getting the best out of him and is there any other system in which you can accommodate Sunil Chaitri in this team don't play as a striker that's my point for me Sunil Chaitri right now there is no other player who can play up front right now first of all in India better than Sunil Chaitri that's my point of time playing as a of course he loves to play from the left coming, cutting in but the way the formation is Sunil Chaitri right up front in our days also Sunil Chaitri played up front when Bob Outten was there so I think the way he is playing right now in India we don't have any other striker who can play up front better than Sunil Chaitri but are you getting the best out of him getting the best out that's the only thing who will play in place of him up front you don't have anyone you don't have anyone it's a tough choice but there has to be someone who can play in that position he is getting goals he is running 90 minutes and he is fighting for every single ball so I feel that in this formation for me Sunil Chaitri is okay up front and I like him to play up front because the workload and the speed they have to take and Udanta and at the back Sahal and Habba and Amarzit they are doing quite well so those four midfielder and one striker and at the back one more defender one more defensive midfielder and they are I think we shouldn't change much on that maybe Kourimon, Asik Kourimon can come in what about and if Asik if Asik gets fit Asik can also play up front but I would rather he has done well on the left wing as we have seen that so Changte in place of Changte if Sahal Kourimon can come in Or if Udanta is not playing well Changte on the left and Kourimon on the right and in the midfield Sahal Amarzit and Habba they are doing quite well in that midfield so now see when you play in this type of game the style that coach are playing we are so used to saying that we need one defensive midfield tough one not in this formation so it keeps shifting it's all about now I know that you want to have one man defender where he can hold the ball but in this formation it's more fast flowing a lot more fluid look at Amarzit how he was defending in the last match he was not playing as an attacking midfielder but he was playing from the back but how he was closing down with the team Syria is not bad, Syria almost qualified for the World Cup playing against 2-1 against Australia that's not bad at all so if he can play those games why can't he play against Oman or Qatar even though I know that there is no form right now so with Oman and all this should be he should be able to do well I also like how actually Thapa has been doing between Thapa and Sahel I think they've got some kind of understanding going where they are not allowing that space necessarily to be created so if one is playing more attacking minded or further up the pitch then we find Thapa getting into that spot just ahead of the defense at the top of the box making those interceptions trying to start off a counter are you guys getting a sense of how of there being a plan though because watching the game I get that you want to pack the midfield I understand the concept of what you want to do but is there like a plan for how this national team is going to progress we've been asking this for a long time firstly is it even feasible to have a plan and if it is then what do you think this coach is trying to do yeah before you jump in and if I think A the way he's trying to play right now with the team I'll be right in saying it's completely alien to the way Indian teams have played in the past so in that sense you'll have to say it's something new to them so to implement a plan like that and actually execute a plan on a regular basis so that when you're watching it from the outside it comes across this is the plan this is how they're moving it will take time now I know it's a little it's not right to say that this plan will be executed properly during or during the course of your Asian and World Cup qualifier that should have probably been done before that but such is the reality that he's not got that much time with the team you can't really blame the coach for that if you play 6-7 games then you need to identify yourself and to give credit to him even Sunil has said this he said I will give a chance to everyone and he's given a chance to everyone and now he will sit back and say what's going on and if you're not there in my plan I have a reason to tell you why look at what you were doing in that game work harder and come back into my team true I agree because now he has SCFs I'm sure it's in his mind that he knows who are the best 4 to play as a defender and who has his best 5 midfielders and one striker and he will stick to that plan and he will not change he is a high level coach and we have done really really well so for this he's not going to yes when he play against when they play against Qatar of course he will be concentrating a little more on defense which we have to because of the individual brilliance but then playing style he will not change much and he should just last thing I'm ending now the final thing on this conversation we've spoken about the fixture list Randy bhai I'll start with you Oman at home Qatar away Bangladesh home Afghanistan away so that's a total of 12 points should be a good number of points for the Indian team from the first 4 fixtures because that sets the tone then going forward first match is always tough I think 7 points win against Afghanistan and Bangladesh that should be we have to have Afghanistan away Afghanistan away yes but a draw against Oman we will help players to play with a little more confidence Oman we haven't in the past we haven't done well against Oman at home at home and of course they will be preparing they are a World Cup side as well so they will be preparing well so a draw first match I think this will help clear everything and then through Afghanistan and Bangladesh we should be able to win so at least 6 to 7 points so we are putting up a leader board right so Renédy Singh is calling 7 points out of 12 in the first 4 games of this qualifiers 7 points yes 4 at least Oman won and Bangladesh 4 points should be 4, 7, 6 prediction here sir 5 I will go because we have playing Afghanistan away so you are going with 2 draws and a win right and obviously a loss to Qatar away from home 5 out of 12 Renédy Singh I will go with 7 a draw at home to start off with Oman a loss to Qatar and then 2 wins I think maybe it's a bit optimistic but that's where we need to be to head into the last game to know exactly where we stand in terms of whatever is going on I in all likelihood will also go with 7 and the only reason I go with 7 is because if you picked up a point against Oman if you pick up 3 points against Bangladesh you are in the zone to get all 3 versus Afghanistan away from home so Renédy Bhai let it be on record 7 points Arjun, 7 points Siddhant 5 points Renédy Singh we will of course revisit this conversation post the 14th of November because that's when the 4th fixture is played Renédy Singh, Siddhant Ani thank you so much for joining us on another episode of 420 grams guys remember once a week every week we will be talking about Indian football come what may thank you so much for watching season on no season thank you for watching goodbye