Subject: [U21 NT] TES

Yes it was a good match. Almost got away with it.

Next 3 matches will be very hard. Against Paraguay we miss Nikhil and this is a very big problem for midfield. Happy to welcome back Sundaramorthy, will his pace be helpfull for our forward play?

Sundaramoorthy was badly missed actually.

That Paraguay striker Lambere was really good with his long ranges from outside the D yesterday.

@TES Sundaramoorthy looked a little left out in his comeback game as I noticed that among the 2 forwards, Zev was getting more of the ball. Can we try swapping Zev's and Sundaramoorthy's positions (if Sundaramoorthy is better in pace and tech) in the next game as a small experiment? We could have converted atleast one of those if Zev just had that little extra pace on him, not to say that he is slow though as we finally have 2 decent forwards who we can bank on.

Nachik and Vasumati were also good with the helping hand in front.

Overall, good tactics as we generated quite a few chances as their keeper was anxiously fumbling the ball in the few shots that we unleashed.
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Paraguay is a strong opponent and found goals from the distance.
We made a better game then first match, I'm happy about it.
New line up and changes seems to work, now we face Italy and we will suffer a lot but this is the right path.
Unfortunately we easily loose the ball (tackle and pass could be better) and we have difficulties to build up game, but we had our chances.
I will try to swap Zev and Sundramoorthy as you suggest, but the real problem is we need a formidable striker to be competitive.
Is there anyone who's training the skill striker?

I'm training defending and pace currently.

I sell all my potential NT strikers as I mainly train defence and pace as well.

Our defense crumbled listlessly yesterday and we just couldn't handle their strikers. I don't think Koppale deserved those 90 minutes, it should have been Elayavalli in his place. We needed a strong defense against Scotland and it wasn't of any use to play Elayavalli a little upfront when he would have served his role better guarding our right defense. We would have maybe seen 2-3 less goals with that 1 little swap. Anyway, the result doesn't matter but we need to make sure that atleast we give our best in every game and make the opposition sweat to score goals.

In the next game against Senegal, we can continue keeping Sundaramoorthy as right forward as he faces a weaker defender there(Tanou with avg mark of 30). Senegal lost by a solitary goal against Sakartvelo and they won't be pushovers in any way but let's hope for a second win in the group stage.

The result was heavy and probably our worst performance. I'm sad about this.
We played against a high-level team (1 or 2 position) with the highest number of goals scored in the tournament and with forwards rated over 60.
Needless to say, I didn't think of such a frustrating defeat (like yesterday Barcelona against Bayern) but I don't think things could have gone very differently with other line up. We easily lose the ball with tackles and bad passes and our defence is always under pressure. The problem is also the quality in midfield and (as known) we need a real striker.
Elayavally took the place of Nachick (yesterday's emergency striker) and he played in Front of the Defence As he did in the past. It is a very important midfield role beacuse help defenders and take their place when they are late. Now Koppale is the first choice in reserve defenders.

As you can see I only made changes at the end because there are no valid replacements. I'm always looking for new perspectives and sometimes we need a bit of luck during this journey. This time everything went wrong except Sundaramorthy's goal.
Against Senegal we will see a different match. We are looking for points to show our improvement.

See, I'm not blaming you for the defeat. I am just of the opinion that we have to be practical while playing against certain teams against whom we have realistically no chance of winning. In such games, there's no shame in playing defensive and playing Elayavalli behind in place of Koppale might have been a better move. I know that the position in front of the defenders might have been left a bit weak but we could still have tried out Tilak/Anees (the new mid that @Hoodibaba pulled).

I hope you don't take this criticism negatively. We'll try to be as open and as frank as possible as only that will bring about positive improvements in the team.

On another disappointing sidenote, It seems like manager of the 'MINDHUNTER' club is no longer active.

It's ok KautukP I appreciate your ideas and I really like our post match chat.
Belive me when I say that low level of stamina and form forced me to play in that way... in first match things went not so bad so I belived we had a little chance.... i was wrong and probably 5 in Defence could have reduce the score.... however we find out Nachick with 51 as a striker and this is a good news for next match against Senegal.

Do you think Nachik should be trained as a striker? Coz then I will sell him?

however we find out Nachick with 51 as a striker and this is a good news for next match against Senegal.
Yeah, Nachik surprisingly had a good rating in striker position. Will have to see how he actually performs against Senegal.

Belive me when I say that low level of stamina and form forced me to play in that way.
Yes, you will have your reasons and since I don't personally know the skill level of players, I base my inferences on how they actually perform on the field, their average marks, etc.

Yes, Nachick is a very important player and I use him as a jolly.
He can play everywhere in midfield and I am sure he can do well as a striker too.

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Let's go and see against Senegal.
The match is a good opportunity to see our strikers movements.
Berteloot is a fast and dangeruous player, we must not understemate him.
Evalayally Will Play as right defender for this reason and I Will find a new solution in midfield.

Berteloot is a fast and dangeruous player, we must not understemate him.
Evalayally Will Play as right defender for this reason and I Will find a new solution in midfield.
Good idea. Just place defenders in positions against strong forwards to negate them. Similarly, place our forwards in positions against their weak defenders.


We need to also start planning for next season since 5 of our core age 21 players won't be available. They are Bhatti, Elayavalli, Nachik, Sivasubramanium, Vasumati, all big names and regular 11 players. Among them, we have 3 defenders(Bhatti, Elayavalli, Sivasubramaniam) and 2 mids(Vasumati, Nachik).

Fortunately our main forwards (Sundaramoorthy, Zev) have 2 more seasons for them and I'm sure Suksma will be added to that list of forwards. I also noticed Hoodibaba playing Gambhir as a forward so even he could be a decent back-up forward. New players will keep getting pulled along the way but we need to start thinking who will replace those 2 mids and 3 defs. 1 straightforward replacement for mids is Anees(good overall skills), the other could be Tilak(is good in pace but okayish in other skills). But who else apart from them? Which means we badly need good mids now. For the 3 defenders, we have the option of Koppale(don't know about him), Subbarayan(has low stam), Munusamy(needs pace but is formidable in def), Dasdidar(has low stam), etc. So we also need good defenders.

Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on this and I'm assuming you will continue as our NT coach. In the junior school thread, I'll post the players that are expected to come out of my junior school in the next season.
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