ISL 2018-19: Delhi Dynamos vs NorthEast United FC- 5 Talking Points

#1 NorthEast United take a leaf out of the wolf pack theory

NEUFC

"When winter arrives the pack survives the lone wolf dies" this sentence is from a famous tv show named yes you all guessed it right Game of Thrones. Why bring in a dialogue from G.O.T in football? Well, the answer lies in the sentence itself if one reads into it clearly we can understand that the dialogue says a lot about teamwork.

Northeast United FC built their team this year based on unity and didn't run after big names or so-called 'marquee' signings. This approach has so far reaped the rewards as the team has been grounded and focused and work collectively.

They press as a unit, attack as a unit and defend as a team, attributes that any coach would love to see but only a few masters.

NorthEast United play the game at a pace with which its oldest members namely Ogbeche, Mato and Gurwinder can adjust too and don't increase the tempo too much which they are capable of given the abundance of youth present in the team. With players like Redeem, Nikhil, Okhrah they have pace down the flanks, and yet they use it very wisely in a manner which is suitable for the strikers.

A lot of coaches, for example, Gombau the Delhi coach used his wingers without synchronisation in respect to the strikers and thus nothing fruitful ever happened. But, whenever NorthEast went down the flanks, they looked menacing, and that is mainly because of the old men(not so old on paper but old given the average age of the squad) being allowed to control the tempo of the game.

Many teams, this season in the ISL, have faltered while trying the increase the pace of the game to suit just one or two players in the group.

NorthEast has been smart in not committing the same mistake as the other teams.