Why Igor Stimac is relying more on ATK Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC players in the SAFF Championship

For reasons of familiarity with conditions and fitness, India’s bid to regain the SAFF Championship will depend more on players from Bengaluru FC and ATK Mohun Bagan, said head coach Igor Stimac on Saturday. India start against defending champions Bangladesh on Monday in the five-team competition that began in Maldives on Friday.

“They (ATK Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC) started work earlier meaning their engines are good for this tournament,” said Stimac during a virtual media interaction along with striker Sunil Chhetri and goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. He was referring to the clubs completing pre-seasons to prepare for group league games in the AFC Cup which Maldives hosted in August. ATK Mohun Bagan had another round of preparation in September for the inter-zonal semi-final.

There are eight players from the two teams in India’s 23-member squad. “With most of the other players, we will have to be careful about how many minutes we can give them,” said Stimac, a former Croatia international.

Given the short season, India’s performance in international games are often contingent on training camps. If India did well against Oman and Qatar in 2019 it was because “we had enough time to select and prepare everything,” said Stimac. For most of the other games Stimac said his staff would focus on strength and conditioning “and not progressing in our football” because the players were in off-season.

But a training camp prior to this tournament was not possible because the national team had to “have in mind preparations by the ISL (Indian Super League) clubs,” said Stimac. So, “after several meetings” with FSDL (Football Sports Development Limited), the company which runs ISL, it was agreed that “everybody had to give up on something,” he said. For Stimac that meant no use of the international window in November in return for franchises releasing players for this tournament which, because of the disruption caused by Covid-19, is not being held on Fifa dates.

That means India go into Monday’s game on the back of five training sessions, some of them on artificial pitches. It is important in such situations, Stimac said, to see that players don’t get injured, especially as many of them have played no football since June. “So we are talking to players, explaining the possible situations, working on set-pieces and playing for 15-20 minutes. There is not much we can do but we are relying on the fact that we know each other and the players know what I expect from them,” he said.

India sent the under-23 team to the last iteration of the SAFF Championship in 2018 and Chhetri said, in a normal world, the senior team would have again possibly stayed away. But we haven’t played much since 2019, said Chhetri going into his fifth SAFF Championship.

The other reason is that this is the last time the national team meets before the third round of the Asian Cup qualifiers in February. “So, we will try to use the tournament in the best possible way to give youngsters experience,” said Stimac.

India will miss central defender Sandesh Jhingan, midfielders Rowlin Borges and Ashique Kuruniyan due to injuries. “Sandesh is one of the leaders on the pitch along with Sunil and Gurpreet. He is very vocal through 90 minutes which is very important. Absolutely we will miss him but we need to have enough capacity to cover every position,” said Stimac.

Winger Udanta Singh returned to the squad because of his performance in the AFC Cup, said Stimac. “We saw a different Udanta, one playing in his natural position, showing speed, creating and executing chances.”

Playing in south Asia is a double-edged sword for India. They have won this competition a record seven times, all titles coming under Indian coaches barring 1993 when Jiri Pesak was in charge and with Stephen Constantine in 2015. Sandhu pointed out that India’s record is why “every team wants to make life difficult for us.” Based on the game against Bangladesh in June and friendlies against Nepal, India can’t afford to be at 90% against any team, said Chhetri. “To show that we are technically superior we will have to fight.” On pitches not really conducive for free-flowing football, he said.

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