Analysing marquee managers ahead of upcoming Indian Super League season

With the Indian Super League hardly a month away, we look at the eight managers who will be leading their respective sides this year. Only three out of the eight teams have retained their managers while others have roped new and experienced coaches to better their show this year.Some are in the capacity of Player-Coach role while others have been roped in purely on their managerial skills. It would be interesting to see, how each manager has gone ahead building their squad. We look at every bit detail of the manager, their past experience, international players they have roped in, their pre-season plans etc. Each and every aspect will be taken in account by us.So let’s quickly scroll through each and every profile and see what do we have on offer this year:

#1 Nicolas Anelka

Nationality: French

Team: Mumbai City FC

Support staff: Oscar Bruzon (Assistant Coach, Spain), Alex Ambrose (Assistant coach, India) Sandeep Kurale (Physiotherapist, India), Sujay Sharma (Analyst, India)

Managerial career: Sampdoria (Italy), Nottingham Forest (England), England U-21, Manchester City (Assistant Manager)

Pre-season: Dubai, UAE

Ratings: 2.5

Nicolas Anelka’s lack of managerial experience at the top level might be something which will come back to bite Mumbai City FC. The former French International has earlier been the assistant coach of Chinese giants Shanghai Shenhua during his playing stint there, but that experience won’t count much in his new role. Post the inaugural season of ISL he went to Algerian club NA Hussein-Dey and served them in position of Sporting Director.

He will now don the dual cap of Player-Manager which has to be seen how he successfully manages. The good part is that Mumbai City FC management has roped in an experienced assistant manager in Oscar Bruzon, who was quite successful during his days with Sporting Clube de Goa where he guided them to their best ever third place finish. His expertise will surely come handy for the Mumbai-based club.

Anelka has been closely working with the management and the squad looks competitive in all departments. There is a right combination of experience and youth and that will certainly help the team ahead of the season.

Anelka & Co have a task on their hands as they look to better their show from last year. Big boots to fill we say.

#2 Roberto Carlos

Nationality: Brazilian

Team: Delhi Dynamos

Support staff: Raman Vijayan (Assistant Coach, India), Shakti Chauhan (Assistant coach, India), Walmir Cruz (Physical trainer, Brazil), Leonardo Franco (Goalkeeper coach, Argentina)

Managerial career: Sivasspor (Turkey), Akhisar Belediyespor (Turkey)

Pre-season: Sweden

Ratings: 2.5

No one can match the illustrious playing career of Roberto Carlos. His huge experience at the club and national level would surely come handy for Delhi Dynamos. Transforming that experience into players is a huge challenge altogether.

Let’s quickly look back at Carlos managerial career. For a very brief while he was the assistant of legendary coach Guus Hiddink at Russian Club Anzhi Makhachkala. He then joined Turkish giants Sivasspor where he guided them to fifth place finish in the 2013-14 season.

He also led them in the 2014-15 campaign, but a home defeat to minnows Basaksehir saw he being sacked from his post. He then joined another Turkish side Akhisar Belediyespor in January 2015 to take them to 12th place finish. He was set to take over Al-Arabi in Qatari Stars League, but their talks didn’t materialize as he joined Delhi Dynamos.

Big fan of 4-2-3-1 formation, the 42-year-old has a quality squad at his service but with a double headache of taking up the field is something which might divert his attention. The team is currently sweating it out in Sweden for their pre-season.

It is still early days, but the team needs to pull up their socks as they face far steeper competition in Indian Super League.

#3 Cesar Farias

Nationality: Venezuelan

Team: North East United

Support staff: Guillermo Sanchez (Assistant Coach, Venezuela), Santosh Kashyap (Assistant coach, India), Gennaro Bracigliano (Goalkeeping coach, France),

Managerial career: Deportivo Anzoategui (Venezuela), Venezuela U-20, Venezuela

Pre-season: Durban, South Africa

Ratings: 3.0

After finishing with the wooden spoon last season, the North East United management decided to part ways with Nicki Herbert and hired Cesar Farias for the second edition. The 42-year-old has done impressive work with Venezuela national team which caught the attention of NEU staff.

He has also got an able assistant in Santosh Kashyap, who everyone knows has been really impressive with North East clubs in I-League. His knowledge and understanding of the North East players would be an added incentive to the team think-tank.

The entire squad has a fresh look this year as they had to part ways with their former partners Shillong Lajong. This year they have brought in some quality talent from the same region with likes of Aiborlang Khongjee, Siam Hanghal, Sanju Pradhan and Seityasen Singh making the squad that much stronger.

They would also have Simao Sabrosa besides them who will be a huge morale booster. Farias experience will be tested to the limit as he has a huge task on his hands to better the performance from last year.

#4 Peter Taylor

Nationality: English

Team: Kerala Blasters

Support staff: Trevor Morgan (Assistant Coach, England), Ishfaq Ahmed (Assistant coach, India), Neil Young (Goalkeeping coach, Australia), Ciaran Deely (Fitness coach, Australia), Simon Maltby (Team Physio, Australia)

Managerial career: England U-21, Leicester City, Hull City, Crystal Palace, Bradford City, Bahrain,

Pre-season: Trivandrum, India

Ratings: 3.5

Peter Taylor is regarded as an experienced manager back in England. He has handled the Three Lions’ U21 side thrice and produced results with them. He was also the interim manager of the England team for a game. His appointment with Bahrain National team was also very impressive as he helped them win the 1st GCC Games and Arab Games.

Having reached the final last year under the leadership of Player-Coach David James, the management decided to part ways with the former English keeper. After a slow start to the season with a fairly decent Domestic Draft, the foreign signings took some time to come in.

For a brief while, there were no updates on their social networking platforms and fear started cropping in among the Kerala fans. Management took control of the situation at the right time and surged late into the window, with quick signing of likes of Carlos Marchena as the Marquee player and other quality signings like Joao Coimbra, Peter Ramage and Sanchez Watt.

The team would kickstart their training at Trivandrum and then head to Goa to play few practice matches in order to ensure they have the required match fitness ahead of their opening match against North East United at Kochi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

They are the only team training in India and fans didn’t like one bit. It is not a bad move as it seems as at the end of the day they would be playing in same conditions in ISL. With most of English players in their ranks, it makes sense they get use to conditions.

Taylor has a very little time and a lot to prove. With able assistants in Trevor Morgan and Ishfaq Ahmed whether they are able to achieve the highs of last season remains to be seen.

#5 Marco Materazzi

Nationality: Italian

Team: Chennaiyin FC

Support staff: Vivek Nagul (Assistant Coach, India), Francesco Franzese (Goalkeeping coach, Italy), Goncalves Willian (Physical Trainer, India), Miguel Gabriel (Physiotherapist, India), Jonathan D’Sousa (Team Manager, India)

Managerial career: Chennaiyin FC (2014)

Pre-season: Perugia, Italy

Ratings: 3.5

Marco Materazzi’s inaugural season as player-cum-coach in ISL can be termed as decent. He played six matches out of possible 14 and took the team to a semi-final finish. This year the team has done their homework and started building the squad from advance.

They have ironed out their flaws as they have roped in Fikru from Atletico de Kolkata, retained Bernard Mendy and signed former Italian International Manuele Blasi. The team is already in Italy and sweating it out. They are set to play as many as four practice matches during their stay in Perugia.

Materazzi’s progress as a manager has been impressive; the decisions which he took during the inaugural season gave us signs that he is maturing as a manager. He is not leaving any stone unturned this season and has personally looked into smallest of things.

The Machans of Chennai are the underdogs of the ISL this season. Don’t be surprised if they make it to the top two this season.

#6 David Platt

Nationality: English

Team: FC Pune City

Support staff: Renedy Singh (Assistant Coach, India), Massimo Battara (Goalkeeping Coach, Italy), Niall Clark (Fitness coach, England), Matt Radcliffe (Physiotherapist, England)

Managerial career: Sampdoria (Italy), Nottingham Forest (England), England U-21, Manchester City (Assistant Manager)

Pre-season: Antalya, Turkey

Ratings: 4.5

David Platt has the experience which very few of the ISL managers possess. His last assignment as the assistant manager of Manchester City would surely have given him insights in what it takes to be the best in the world.

His managerial career started with Italian Serie A side Sampdoria in 1998 season, but his stint lasted only for 6 matches as there was a lot of criticism that he didn’t have a proper license. He then joined Nottingham Forest where he spent good 3-4 seasons. He then joined England U-21 for three seasons in 2001 before joining Manchester City as first team coach and then later as Roberto Mancini’s co-assistant.

The former England International is trying to bring in the same level of professionalism at FC Pune City too. This can be seen the way they have roped in domestic and International players. Every single player has been thoughtfully signed and the squad now looks for a top four finish.

Even the support staff has a real quality in them with every single one of them having top experience with famous European clubs. Things look promising from outside, but one has to see how they perform on the field.

The entire squad in now sweating it out in Antalya (Turkey) and we will soon know how they are combining as a unit.

#7 Antonio Lopez Habas

Nationality: Spanish

Team: Atletico de Kolkata

Support staff: Bastob Roy (Assistant Coach, India), Angel Diaz Barrachina (Assistant coach, Spain), Miguel Martinez (Fitness coach, Spain), Deshi Bakhtawar (Goalkeeping coach, South Africa), Alberto Marrero (Sporting Director, Spain)

Managerial career: Bolivia, Sporting Gijon, Granada, Valencia, Tenerife, Celta Vigo

Pre-season: Segovia, Spain

Ratings: 5.0

Because of their technical support from Atletico de Madrid and able manager in Antonio Lopez Habas, Atletico de Kolkata have always made the right moves. Be it selection of marquee player in Helder Postiga or signing of International players, they always seem to be on the right path.

Habas, who carries a wealth of experience in Spanish Football, was very impressive in the inaugural season of ISL. Not only because team lifted the title but because his keys decisions at crucial times in the tournament made the difference. In the final he benched Luis Garcia and Jofre due to a dip in form and eventually the move attracted a lot of praise as they lifted the title thanks to an extra time goal from Mohammed Rafique.

There is a huge change in the squad this year, Habas has made sure core of the team stays the same with key signings around them. In foreign players they have added impressive striker Ian Hume, winger Valdo, midfielder Ofentse Nato and goalkeeper Juan Calatayud while in domestic players they have added right back Rino Anto, left back Augustine Fernandes, midfielder Arata Izumi and Nadong Bhutia.

As they near the start of ISL, things look really promising for the Kolkata outfit and they look set for another strong performance this season.

#8 Zico

Nationality: Brazilian

Team: FC Goa

Support staff: Vannucci Fernando (Assistant Coach, Brazil), Moraci Sant’anna (Conditioning coach, India), Goncalves Willian (Physical Trainer, India), Miguel Gabriel (Physiotherapist, India), Jonathan D’Sousa (Team Manager, India)

Managerial career: Kashima Antlers (Japan), Japan, Fenerbahce (Turkey), CSKA Moscow (Russia), Olympiacos (Greece), Flamengo (Brazil), Iraq, Al Gharafa (Qatar)

Pre-season: Dubai, UAE

Ratings: 5.0

Arthur Antunes Coimbra best known as Zico needs no introduction for his achievements as a manager. Having coached FC Goa last season, he marginally missed out on the final last season. He would have certainly analyzed the positives and negatives from last year and would have made the changes accordingly.

The 62-year-old, who is in line for the FIFA Presidency, has made some major changes from last season. He has replaced Robert Pires with highly experienced Lucio, which would be a major fill this season. He has also retained highly impressive Gregory Arnolin from last year.

The squad once again looks really strong with some quality domestic names in their ranks. In fact, FC Goa were the only team who had maximum retentions before the Domestic draft. Their International players are mostly of Brazil descent which might be an added advantage for them. The think-tank also got the signatures of Salgaocar’s Darryl Duffy and former Pune FC central defender Luciano Sabrosa recently.

Zico has made every single move with a lot of thought and the way things look, they are once again in a good position for a strong finish.

Edited by Staff Editor