Five biggest issues Indian football team faced under Manolo Marquez

Manolo Marquez won only one match during his reign as Blue Tigers head coach

Manolo Marquez has left his position as the Indian football team’s head coach after a relatively short stint in charge of the Blue Tigers. After only assuming his position on 20 July 2024, the Spanish gaffer didn’t even complete one full year as the Indian football team coach before mutually agreeing to leave his position.

Marquez will instead extend his contract as the FC Goa head coach and continue coaching the Gaurs going forward. That means another transition will take place in the Indian football team, with players having to adapt to a new head coach’s system going forward. Marquez’s stint as the India head coach, however, was quite ineffective as he struggled to implement his philosophy properly or elevate the overall quality of the Indian football team.

The Indian players suffered from various problems under Marquez’s guidance, and he struggled to fix the issues. Here we look at the five issues the Indian football team faced under Manolo Marquez.

5. Struggling to find the ideal midfield combination

The Indian football team couldn’t really control matches as well under Marquez as he would’ve ideally liked them to. During his time in Indian football, the Spanish gaffer created a reputation for forming teams that mostly dominated the midfield battle and worked hard in pressing at the right areas to regain possession. The Indian team struggled to implement that side and that might be because of the midfield line constantly being chopped and changed.

Marquez failed to find the ideal combination of players, as his midfield duo (or trio) often lacked the chemistry or overall understanding to control the midfield battle. His decision to promote Ayush Chhetri failed as the FC Goa youngster struggled at the international stages.

Lalengmawia Ralte didn’t really find any ideal or consistent partners in the midfield, stopping him from performing at an optimum level. This inability to find balance in the midfield combination ultimately hurt India and held them back from performing at a high level.

4. Failure to find a clinical No.9

The Indian football team produced some damning goal numbers in Marquez’s stint, as he totally failed to get them firing on all cylinders. The Blue Tigers only scored five goals in the eight matches under him, that too only in three games. Marquez was given the duty of trying to find a new clinical No. 9 who can lead the line for India.

He ended up urging Sunil Chhetri to come out from retirement to help out his team, which also failed as the Bengaluru FC striker failed to impress under Manolo. The Spanish gaffer surprisingly snubbed promising forwards like Edmund Lalrindika and David Lalhlansanga, despite them performing well in their respective leagues. This inability to find a ruthless No. 9 meant that India were often toothless in front of goal and struggled to seal games as a result.

3. Lack of creative options

The Indian football team’s issues were not just restricted to scoring goals, but also in terms of creating them on a consistent basis. Indeed, the Indian football team lacked proper creative outlets in the majority of matches under Marquez, which didn’t allow them to properly take the fight to opponents. Brandon Fernandes had some impressive matches under his former gaffer’s system, but he wasn’t consistently featured.

The majority of midfielders played were mostly on the defensive side to help the Blue Tigers sustain pressure or win back the ball in key areas. They lacked that special spark through their wide players, who couldn’t really create much in the final third at all. The creativity issue held India back on many occasions under Marquez and resulted in some disappointing results.

2. Failure to bring ruthlessness in finishing chances

Even though India might have only scored five goals in their eight matches under Manolo Marquez, it’s not like they didn’t create anything in the matches they failed to score. They did occasionally come up with some big chances, but the finishing quality of the players in the Spaniard’s system was just pretty awry.

Indeed, Marquez was just not able to solve the finishing issue within the team, which he had inherited from the Igor Stimac era. He failed to bring a sense of composure to his forward players, which resulted in them constantly wasting big chances from promising areas inside the box.

He failed to solve the overall goalscoring problem within the Indian team and that major issue came back to haunt him in the end as well.

1. Struggles in finding the right formation

Manolo Marquez might have been the Indian football team’s head coach for only about eight games, but he did experiment quite a bit with his system during that period. The Spaniard not only chopped and changed his players, but started switching up the overall shape and formations of the Indian side too.

He ended up confusing players and fans alike because of his inability to nail on the right formation that could’ve benefitted the players. Marquez sometimes played a 4-2-3-1, before switching to a 4-3-3 or even a 4-4-2 on a few occasions. His struggles to find the right formation ended up hurting India, resulting in some sloppy performances because players didn’t know their roles or responsibilities well enough.

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