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It has been a few days since India's disappointing exit at the Asian Cup 2019 in UAE. A 0-1 loss to Bahrain knocked the Indian national football team out of the competition and that was followed by the unceremonial resignation of the head coach Stephen Constantine at the post-match press conference.
There's no denying that Constantine was a controversial figure in Indian football. Since he took charge for the second time in 2015, Constantine has had his share of run-ins with the players, federation and media.
India's first task under Constantine was to do well in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers but the team managed to only finish one spot above the bottom of the group, even losing a winnable match away 2-1 in Guam.
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Constantine's revised objective was to ensure India qualified for the Asian Cup 2019 and given that the tournament's final stages were thrown open to 24 teams, the task was doable.
The Brit managed to achieve that in spectacular fashion and those were the best days of his stint with the national team. He oversaw a 13-match unbeaten run and the Blue Tigers, led by Sunil Chhetri, booked their spot in the tournament with a game to spare.
Then, the trouble began.
And here, we list out 5 things that Constantine could have done better during his tenure.
Also see : Copa America Standings, Copa America Schedule
#5 Team Selections - Constantine ignored in-form players
There are two sides to this story. Constantine always made it a point to bring up the number of players he has handed debuts to - the number stands at a staggering 47.
Sure, yes. That's pretty good.
However, Constantine never answers why he ignores a certain set of players who, according to him, do not adhere to his playing philosophy. The names that were brought up over the years include Rahul Bheke, Michael Soosairaj, Lallianzuala Chhangte and Souvik Chakrabarti.
Chhangte has been called up a couple of times but missed out for a large part of Constantine's tenure. The other three, despite performing consistently well for their clubs over the last two years, have even been called up to the national camp.
Constantine did not deem them good enough to at least see them in the national team camp. The coach appears to have had his own presumptions about these players even without calling them up.
And quite expectedly, the argument that supports his decision to not call these players is that Constantine has his system and core set up already and it's not a risk worth taking before an important tournament like the Asian Cup.
It doesn't explain why the likes of Sumeet Passi, Sarthak Golui and Narayan Das continue to receive calls up to the national team despite faring poorly for their clubs.
That's the reason Constantine's selections have always come under criticism and this is one area that really hampered India's progress at the Asian Cup.
If he had a better pool of players to choose from, he could have brought in better substitutes to help India get that draw against Bahrain.
Next slide - How did Constantine handle the media?
#4 Constantine - Treating the media like the enemy
The Fourth Estate is there to criticise, correct and suggest the workings of any system. However, when Constantine was quizzed, usually in press conferences, about his selection criteria, tactics and asked to explain certain things about the Indian football, the response usually reeked of arrogance.
If the selections were brought up, Constantine would claim to talk about only the players that are in the squad. If asked about the progress of a player who fell out of the contention for the national team, Constantine would again remind the journalists that he looks for consistency in the player's club performance and cite that as a reason to ignore players like Romeo Fernandes, Rino Anto or Eugeneson Lyngdoh.
That criteria, however, doesn't apply to certain others that we've pointed out already.
When it comes to his tactics, Constantine has always rejected asking his players to punt long-balls to their strikers. He also suggests that the team always goes for the win. The display on the field says otherwise.
Talking about his achievements and 'historic' performances is a favourite pass-time of Constantine during India's press conferences. He would push in this agenda in the middle of a serious question about his faltering relationship with certain senior players or while talking about how India need to play more friendlies.
Sure, Constantine has delivered results but the expectations were set too low.
And that brings us to the next problem on India's friendly schedule.
#3 Scheduling and playing friendlies
Constantine has always wished that he would get the Indian national football team to play more international friendlies. He has often spoken about how he wished India played stronger opponents like Iran, China and Jordan on a regular basis.
Yet, ahead of an important tournament like the Asian Cup, India played only three friendlies - against China, Jordan and Oman. In these three FIFA international friendly windows, most of India's opponents at the Asian Cup played six friendlies.
This, after claiming before the departure to UAE for the Asian Cup, that Constantine had to reject an offer to play Iran because the fixture clashed with Oman.
The AIFF are responsible for writing to federations of other countries and inviting them for friendlies. But the coach still has a say and he can push the AIFF to approach more teams.
India are learnt to have rejected an offer from Syria to play a friendly on Dec 30, just before the Asian Cup. They instead chose to play an intra-squad match, which is anyway a drill in most training sessions.
Constantine also skipped friendlies in 2016 to help India climb up the flawed FIFA rankings. There is a rise in performance surely, but the rise in rankings from 173rd to a high of 95 is mainly because India toyed with their international break schedules.
Next slide - Constantine was poor in managing senior players
#2 Constantine's handling of player feuds
When India were at the brink of qualifying for the Asian Cup 2019, a couple of the senior players met the AIFF and expressed their thoughts about Constantine's inability to helm India at the tournament.
This was back in October 2017 but the AIFF extended Constantine's contract until the Asian Cup in February 2018, ignoring calls for his ouster because of India's rise in the rankings.
Just after the friendly with China in October 2018, the Times of India revealed India's top-scorer Sunil Chhetri to be one of the players who had sought the removal of the Englishman. It's never advisable to remove a coach three months before a major tournament but how was Constantine's reaction to that?
In the guise of rotating captaincy, Constantine handed the skipper's arm-band to other players like Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sandesh Jhingan, Arnab Mondal and Subrata Paul even though there was only one clear leader on the field.
Chhetri then missed the friendly against Jordan in November in mysterious circumstances, citing an ankle injury. Chhetri showed discomfort soon after he scored a goal against Kerala Blasters on November 5, but played the entire game. He then pulled out on November 17, citing injury, but amazingly recovered soon after to play against FC Goa on November 22.
All that pointed to a rift between the two but both of them have denied anything of that sort time and again.
One can only speculate what might have transpired but Constantine could have handled the situation better.
Next slide - What led India down?
#1 Tactics against Bahrain
There's a feeling of what could have been soon after India crashed out of the Asian Cup. India raised expectations with a 4-1 win over Thailand in their opener. The performance against UAE, albeit their 0-2 loss, assured everyone that India could make the knockouts for the first time.
On January 14, all that changed. Going into the game, India only needed a draw to qualify and that intent was clear from the first whistle.
Playing for a draw in a crucial game like that would only add pressure on your defenders. The Indian defence has to be applauded for holding on for 90 minutes - they showed faith in those strange tactics. The second the game went into added time, the defence crumbled. India conceded a penalty and lost the game.
For 90 minutes, Constantine asked his players to do the same thing - lob it to the other half and let your strikers do the work. It never worked in the first half. He changed personnel, bringing on Jeje Lalpekhlua for Ashique Kuruniyan.
He noticed it did not work for a majority of the second half too but not once did he ask his players to maintain their composure and build the play. India were always breaking on the counter and never once dominated possession.
By the end of the game, it showed that the thinking was flawed. India had zero shots on target.
It doesn't mean that the tactic is wrong, it's just that India do not have the right kind of players to execute that game. It worked against a team like Thailand as they were not as physically strong as the Indians, but the Bahrainis were different - they were strong and fast.
Constantine should have been flexible. The Indians should have tried something different to adapt to the game of their opponents.
But they continued doing the same thing and suffered.
