Indian footballers are physically fit but lack technical abilities, opines Renedy Singh
Renedy Singh feels that Indian footballers have the physicality but lack in the technical side of things. The former footballer has made 59 appearances for the national team during his prime, having made vital contributions in India’s 2007 Nehru Cup-winning squad and AFC Challenge Cup win, in 2008.
Indian football has come a long way in the past few years, with the country producing top-notch footballers who have gone onto play for the national side successfully. In spite of that, the Blue Tigers have failed to produce desirable results in a myriad of international events. Ex-footballer Renedy Singh believes that it is down to the fact that the current batch of Indian footballers are physically very fit, but they are not very good technically which doesn’t allow them to play a more expansive and ‘beautiful’ brand of football.
“All the players are supremely fit, if you see their physicality. But what's missing, I feel, is the technical side of things. If you can't send the ball pinpoint to where you want to, then you'll never play the beautiful brand of football you want to. It won't come in a day, but to be a technical player, you have to kick 500-600 balls every single day," said Renedy Singh, to Injury Time podcast.
India scripted a magnificent result against Asian champions Qatar in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers last year, holding them to a 0-0 draw. But, they faltered in the following match in front of a lowly ranked Bangladesh, the match ending in a 1-1 draw, a game that the Blue Tigers should have won. Singh further added that Bangladesh defended throughout the match, just like India did a similar thing against Qatar. The former Mohun Bagan player feels that Indian players lacked the technical skills to break down that defensive unit, which led to the draw against Bangladesh.
"[I could see] Bangladesh doing what India did against Qatar. For 90 minutes, they didn't allow India to move, and we couldn't break in. If you are not technically sound, you cannot break a team that is defensively sound. You need all the physicality and hard work when defending, but to win games when the opposition is defending, technique is the most important thing, which we are lacking,” added the former who was part of India’s squad in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.