Manolo Marquez: Could he be AIFF’s finest pick in last 20 years?

Manolo Marquez is different from every other foreign manager India has had this century.

Manolo Marquez has worked with Indian clubs – and thus, with the Indian football talent pool system – before taking the reins of the national team.

The Indian football team has been given a new direction. After nearly a decade of dabbling in British hit-and-run football & Croatian creative flair, India has now decided to taste a Spanish delicacy, bred with local masala.

🚨Manolo Márquez set to be appointed as the new Indian national team head coach on a three-year deal 🇮🇳#IndianFootball #AIFF #football pic.twitter.com/ivFG87uaj2

— Khel Now (@KhelNow) July 20, 2024

AIFF has appointed FC Goa coach Manolo Marquez as the new manager of the Indian football team. The gaffer will hold both posts next season and will work exclusively with the Blue Tigers after the end of the 2024-25 season.

Before getting into the fundamentals, let us take a look at his journey as a manager. Having retired at the early age of 28, Manolo managed the likes of Espanyol B, Las Palmas B and its senior side before coming to India in 2020. Hyderabad FC signed him as a replacement for Albert Roca, who had then joined FC Barcelona as a fitness coach.

His work with Hyderabad FC

Manolo Marquez is known for his extensive work with youngsters. He gives set responsibilities to his players and expects them to deliver. Under him, Hyderabad FC saw Chinglesana Singh Konsham fulfil his potential, something that football fans here in India had witnessed way back in 2016-17.

He had played a commanding role as a center-back for Delhi Dynamos and Shillong Lajong FC, a club he captained as well. Chinglesana credits Manolo for making Hyderabad FC the entertaining side it is today.

Sanna is just one of the many on this list. From Aniket Jadhav to Souvik Chakrabarti, Manolo has an eye to spot talent and use it to his team’s strength.

He also transformed Yasir, a fringe player at FC Goa and Pune City into a confident dribbler and line-breaking off the right wing. Ashish Rai and Akash Mishra, two of the most attacking full-backs in the country, were bred into threatening players only under Manolo.

FC Goa head coach Manolo Marquez will now also take charge of the Indian Men's Football Team! 🇮🇳🥳A Good Move, Great Move or Not So Great?#IndianFootball #IndianFootballTeam #BlueTigers pic.twitter.com/uvuAZyEByj

— Khel Now (@KhelNow) July 20, 2024

He’s a hard taskmaster but is also capable of shielding his players. Players breathe, grow and develop as Manolo Marquez silently delivers on the job at hand. He’s one of the finest man-managers in Indian footballing history and parallels can be drawn between him and Armando Colaco (from his Dempo days).

He also has a tremendous record while working with a stringent budget – Marquez lost just 20% of the games during his stint with the Nizams.

ALSO READ: Manolo Marquez appointed new head coach of Indian football team

What sets him apart?

Consider this for a moment. Since the turn of the century, no foreign coach has had the experience of working with Indian clubs before taking over the hot seat. From Islam Ahmedov to Bob Houghton to Stephen Constantine to Igor Stimac, the list only has names that came to Indian shores with the national team job in hand.

It is important to understand that India doesn’t have a unique footballing style. Thus, the national team coach, without any real practical knowledge of the club level, had to develop a system best suited for the national team.

Manolo Marquez is different in this aspect. In the 21st century, he’s the first foreign manager to have worked with Indian clubs – and thus, with the Indian football talent pool system – before taking the reins of the national team. This puts him in good stead to create a philosophy that could trickle down and have an uniting effect on Indian football, helping the national team in return. 

Every football fan across Asia knows India has a gaping hole on the pitch since the retirement of Sunil Chhetri from internationals. Manolo is the right man for this job at the moment because he is known to create a system in which several players thrive and play off each other.

This would also help the team in the future, with lesser pressure on individuals. Throughout three seasons at Hyderabad, his team scored a whopping 128 goals, with the likes of Liston Colaco and Mohd Yasir getting on the scoresheet regularly and several Indian players such as Akash Mishra and Ashish Rai turning providers.

Manolo Marquez uses a 4-2-3-1 system more often than not and is known to play a possession-based style of football with dynamic attacking patterns. While controlling the midfield, he tries to create overloads in the wide areas of the pitch, a tactic that could work well in Asian conditions with the right set of players.

Under the Spanish tactician, creative forwards such as Yasir and Liston thrive, and it will be crucial for Manolo Marquez to get them to their best in national colors in the years to come. Under him, youngsters could become the spine of the team, and play with more brevity and freedom. This would only create a better future for Indian football.

Possible challenges

The hot seat of Indian football hasn’t been kind. It has its fair share of challenges – dealing with an administration that keeps throwing new challenges, a set of players that are expected to deliver beyond their regular and a fanbase that keeps growing and shrinking at the same speed.

Players haven’t always performed at their best and this has put the spotlight on the manager more often than not. Will Manolo Marquez be able to change that?

The World Cup dream has been the cornerstone of every project that has witnessed a start in Indian football. However, India and its footballing administrators need to be practical and set realistic targets.

India needs its Qatar-like story and its Felix Sanchez-like figure. Is Manolo Marquez the right man to do the job?

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