India coach Wim Koevermans doesn’t have a strong case for his central defence

Wim Koevermans had hinted last month that he could drop the IMG-Reliance contracted players for the upcoming international friendlies against the Philippines and Nepal as he expressed concerns regarding the fact that they don’t have an I-League club.

The Dutchman boldly excluded all the IMG-R players including the experienced trio of Gouramangi Singh, Subrata Pal and Syed Rahim Nabi from the final 21-man squad. The former Netherlands international left out as many as ten players that were part of the SAFF Championship 2013 squad and included five uncapped players for the twin friendlies in the upcoming international break.

Koevermans made a statement by leaving out those IMG-R contracted players and also rewarded many consistent I-League performers like Lalrindika Ralte, Nicholas Colaco, CK Vineeth and Arindam Bhattacharya besides recalling Gurjinder Kumar, Denzil Franco and Clifford Miranda.

As pointed out by former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia, international friendlies are the right platform to experiment but Koevermans might have taken a massive gamble in central defence. The Dutchman has picked only three recognised centre-backs in Arnab Mondal, Raju Gaikwad and Aiborlang Khongjee and of the three, only Arnab possibly merits a place in the squad currently.

Two years ago Raju was possibly the best young centre back in the country but he hasn’t played much football in the last 18 months and only made one I-League appearance so far this season. But the East Bengal defender has still managed to keep his place in the national squad and in fact has only been dropped once during Koevermans’ tenure but on that occasion the friendly against Yemen got cancelled.

Raju Gaikwad (in blue) has gone backwards in the last 18 months

Khongjee has received his first-ever senior call-up and his inclusion is also a bit puzzling because the Mohun Bagan defender was actually in great form last season and hasn’t been able to reach those heights this term. In fact’s it’s his club teammate Kingshuk Debnath who has been more consistent and possibly deserved a place in the squad.

To be fair to Koevermans, just like the strikers’ department he didn’t have too many central defenders to choose from as each I-League club has at least one foreigner playing in that position while some also play two.

But the 53-year-old once again surprisingly overlooked Pune FC’s Anas Edathodika, who has made another solid start while former India under-23 international Dharmaraj Ravanan of Churchill Brothers also hasn’t done much wrong despite his club’s poor start.

East Bengal’s Gurwinder Singh possibly deserved a place ahead of his club teammate Raju as the Punjabi has seen more action but Koevermans went for a familiar face. Raju and Arnab have played together in central defence at under-23 level and for East Bengal of course but worryingly that combination hasn’t looked convincing at all.

Anas Edathodika (in red) is unfortunate to miss out from the squad

The three centre-backs have only 27 international appearances among them with Khongjee yet to make his debut and thus Koevermans is taking a huge risk especially considered that Philippines will have all their foreign-based attackers available while Nepal caused India’s defence plenty of problems in the 2-1 win at SAFF 2013.

Unlike SAFF 2013, Koevermans has his regular fullbacks Denzil and Gurjinder available for the two matches while the inclusion of 20-year-old left back Narayan Das is with an eye to the 2014 Asian Games, where the former Holland defender will be in charge of the India u-23 team.

Both Khogjee and Raju are not under-23 players so their inclusions don’t necessarily point to the fact that Koevermans is looking at the Asian Games. Arnab has established his place in the national team but even he has had some poor performances for East Bengal recently.

Back in August, Koevermans kept IMG-R contracted players Nirmal Chettri, Gouramangi Singh and Sandesh Jhingan in the squad despite their lack of activity in pre-season. The reason was that the India coach didn’t have too many other defensive options to choose form.

India will miss the experience of Gouramangi, who is not in the squad for the first time since his international debut in 2007

This time it was even more difficult for Koevermans to retain those IMG-R players as they haven’t been in action since September and he expressed sympathy, “I cannot select players that are not in full training and playing. I feel sorry for the boys because there is no solution.”

While the goalkeeping and midfield departments look fine due to adequate replacements, the Dutchman doesn’t have a strong case for his central defence and that could prove to be costly in the two friendlies