Subject: [U21] Attila

I am developing the stamina of midfielders right now.

Nice!

WCQ Group M:

1. Türkiye U21 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
2. Eesti U21 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
3. USA U21 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
4. India U21 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
5. Zhōngguó U21 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
6. as-Saʻūdiyya U21 0 0 0 0 0-0 0

We can aim for a 3rd/4th place finish. China recently went till the semi finals of the Asian Cup so they are not going to be an easy opponent.

Yes it's a very tough group. The only guaranteed win might be against Saudi Arabia.
We can't underestimate China even though we have beaten them before.
If we can finish 3rd and get a top 60 ranking this season, it will be a good season.
Especially since our team isn't too strong at the moment.

Also Subbarayan will be out of action for 23 days.

The tactics had to be used carefully against Nigeria because we don’t have a strong enough goalkeeper in the person of Meyappan at the moment. That’s why I left in the tactics set with the backward defense from the previous week inside.

I am also cautious about WCQ group. If we had a goalkeeper like Lavanya, I would be very optimistic, so that only Meyappan has to, I have to be careful about our preliminary hopes. And yes, there was another difficulty because Subbarayan will be eliminated for 3 weeks, this includes the first 2 qualifiers. Currently, the number of defenders already capable of U21 level is limited unfortunately.

Nevertheless, I am very pleased to see your confidence again and continue to lead India’s U21 team. I try to get the best out of this playlist.

Tonight Hungary's team will be our opponent. They include their a B team, with many 20 year old players, as promised by their captain, the big difference between the two teams is somewhat offset by this. Of course, even so, the opponent will be much stronger, and I am a little afraid of the stronger opponent because of our goalkeeper problem, which has been mentioned several times before. Nevertheless, we have to play against such a strong team before the start of WCQ, where there will be teams of a similar level to the Hungarians.

This time we are in the lineup with 5 defenders. The Hungarian captain likes to play winger, and this tactical element can also be observed among the stronger U21 teams, so it will be good to test the defense against them.
I look forward to this serious test of strength.

Squad
1 Sarabjith Meyappan GK
2 Ajayan Makarand DEF
3 Arijith Biswas DEF
4 Manjit Pavan DEF
5 Vijay Mehul DEF
6 Pratik Yashodhan DEF
7 Biju Saini MID
8 Sylvester Surnilla MID
9 Mark Varati MID
10 Raman Najeeb ATT
11 Tejas Satwant ATT

12 Sachin Divakar GK
13 Vikrant Kabra DEF
14 Sameer Bimalbirua MID
15 Biju Suresh MID
16 Douglas Engineer ATT
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Raman Najeeb
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Ajayan Makarand on position 3
1' red card or no player
Ajayan Makarand on position 5
1' red card or no player
Ajayan Makarand on position 6
55' always
Biju Suresh on position 9
65' always
Sameer Bimalbirua on position 8
75' always
Douglas Engineer on position 10

We were unlucky with the red card to Saini but on the bright side, another prospective mid will get a chance in his place.
I also noticed that when the ball was coming in our half, our forwards were swapping positions. I'm assuming that was a mistake.
Hungary B team was too strong for us eventually.

The changes of the two strikers I don’t think will have a significant impact on our midfield game. In attack, on the other hand, that can give some extra chances if the strikers change places while running forward. But I say, I don’t think it matters, yet I’m still going to change the settings of these 5 defensive tactics, especially the location of the midfielders.

For me, the red card is now not only a hardship in yesterday’s match, but because of the ban, it also narrows our options a bit against the US. Although indeed, you are right that even midfielders have the most players who can be put in an important match.

I think Hungary as well as the stronger teams have more divine level goalkeepers, so the biggest difference for us right now is that with us, Meyappan is only at the formidable level and he is the best here right now.

And the situation is somewhat similar in the other positions: Hungary's B team can play better forces in the match. I think we had only one goal in yesterday’s game and we managed to achieve that by not getting a lot of goals.
(edited)

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Sarabjith Meyappan, age: 21
club: Trust Bouwwerken, country: India

injury: (21 days)

21 days injury, I can't find words for this :(

Divakar remained our only usable goalkeeper and we will to play 3 matches (including 2 WCQ matches) with a GK who has goalkeeping skill of 8 (solid) or at best only 9 (very good).

We know what that means. When Meyappan's performance was already a huge risk, what can I say now that Divakar will be our goalkeeper ... I'm very angry about it.

Goalkeepers rarely get injured and Meyappan is now out of action at the worst time just when the season is starting with 3 group games coming up. Even with Meyappan fit, our chances of a good season had already diminished but this news is still a big blow.

This is really bad news. Hopefully Kautuk's keeper that will graduate from the jr. school this week and my GK that will come after 3 weeks, will help us in this department. Although Meyappan will be back by then

This performance today was so very okay. I was afraid of what the team would be able to do after a lot of unfavorable antecedents, especially with the non-U21 level goalkeeper. However, what says more about our great performance is that it didn’t show in the match that our goalkeeper was just at a solid goalkeeping level. I’m proud of the team for being a great fit and we had several (3) chances to score. Dreams would have come true if we managed to score point today. We are expected to have a chance to score point in the next match, even a win is conceivable.
(edited)

It gives a misleading picture to look only at the strengths of our WCQ group based on the world rankings. This is because the world rankings are based on the results of previous seasons, they do not show the strength of the CURRENT national teams. I think it's worth looking at the statistics of the 3 matches played today:

Average individual marks:
55.9 Türkiye U21
55.3 Eesti U21
53.1 USA U21
45.9 Zhōngguó U21
42.8 as-Saʻūdiyya U21
41.4 India U21

First squad average value
161 646 429 Ft Türkiye U21
155 860 715 Ft Eesti U21
137 050 000 Ft USA U21
78 220 834 Ft as-Saʻūdiyya U21
73 476 924 Ft Zhōngguó U21
50 611 539 Ft India U21

So based on these, unfortunately, only the 6th best team is ours, and based on that, it will be worth evaluating all the results of our group. We achieved a very acceptable result today, and seeing the match, I think we had a chance at the draw as well.