Indian Football: Bobby Houghton's Big Dilemma

The Indian Football Team’s Chief coach Bob Houghton picked an experimental side for the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in March but stated that he would return to the regular senior side for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in June. Before the start of the Challenge Cup qualifiers, this seemed a great plan but with the younger team’s great show of character and their ability to fight back under-pressure, this plan may need to be tweaked.

Selection Dilemmas Aplenty for Bob Houghton

New stars in town

People may not agree with me, but in the absence of Baichung Bhutia, Houghton lacked candidates for the position of second striker. Mohammed Rafi couldn’t find his feet in the international arena and as far as Abhishekh Yadav is concerned; well, the less said the better.

Meanwhile, Jeje has come into form at just the right time. He is in the right frame of mind, scoring lots of goals(4 goals in 3 international games) and the perfect replacement for Bhutia who is now probably in the last few years of his career.

Enter, Robin Singh. At 6 ft, he is what Houghton never had. A skilled target man. The boy from Noida was a key man in Bengal’s 30th Santosh Trophy win. As of now, Jeje may be scoring a lot of goals but Chhetri is there for that part and Robin fits perfectly into the long-ball system implemented by Houghton.

Either way, Bob Houghton would lose sleep over whom to pick. Thankfully, it’ll be a positive loss of sleep.

The Midfield Conundrum

To be frank, the mid-field is the weak link of the team. The midfield is unable to hold the ball. When they receive it, they panic and give it away, as easily as spare change. When fit and in-form, Renedy is spectacular, shooting bullets like the one against Bahrain. Oh, what I would give for him to be 10 years younger! But the reality is that he’s not. He might not be able to play at the 2015 Asian Cup or even if he does, it will most probably be his last one and that’s why a young replacement like Ralte needs to be made ready so that the void left by him would be filled with relative ease.

Our Coach should look to gradually phase out the in-effective and ageing mid field by bringing in new legs in the form of Ralte, Jewel and Vashum. But the question is ..when?