Why Indian football team are struggling to score goals?

The Blue Tigers will look to score goals and grab a win against Vietnam.

The Indian football team are scheduled to play Vietnam at the Thien Truong Stadium on 12th October 2024 in an international friendly. During the game, the spotlight will be on the Indian attackers as the country is looking to find their next big goalscorer in the post-Sunil Chhetri era. 

India’s Woeful Form in Front of Goal!

The Blue Tigers are in a horrendous run of form, having failed to win any of their last 10 international games. India’s biggest problem is scoring goals as the team has managed to score only twice in these ten games. 

Failure to score goals has been one of the main reason why India were knocked out of the 2024 AFC Asian Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. 

Why is the Indian football team struggling to score goals?

One of the reasons why India are not scoring many goals is simply because they don’t have a proper center forward. All of the Indian Super League (ISL) clubs are playing with a foreign striker as they want to make the most of their chances in a game. Owing to this, most Indian forwards are forced to play as a winger to get minutes. 

In the early days of the ISL, Jeje Lalpheklua was trusted by Chennaiyin FC and was given the number nine role. This had a positive impact on the Indian national team as the Mizo Sniper scored 23 goals in 56 appearances for the Blue Tigers. 

ALSO READ: Why Aakash Sangwan deserved his Indian Football Team call-up?

Owing to his goal-scoring ability, Jeje was also awarded the AIFF Player of the Year award in 2016. It seemed that India finally had a goal-scoring replacement for Sunil Chhetri. However, the former Chennaiyin FC and Mohun Bagan star’s career was cut short by a knee injury which forced him to retire from football in 2023 at the young age of 32 years. 

Who can play as the striker for the Blues against Vietnam?

Blue Tiger’s head coach Manolo Marquez has chosen Edmund Lalrindika, Farukh Chaudhary, Manvir Singh and Vikram Partap Singh, as his possible striker options for the game against Vietnam. Among these names, only Farukh Chowdhary has managed to score a league goal so far this season.

However, the concerning part will certainly be that none of these players are playing as the centre-forward in their respective clubs. Hence, it would take time for them to adapt and get accustomed to the role. 

Are there other Indian center forwards in the ISL?

Apart from the players that were selected in the probables list this time, a few other candidates are knocking on the door. Daniel Lalhimpuia (Mumbai City), Irfan Yadwad, Gurkirat Singh (both from Chennaiyin FC), Ishan Pandita (Kerala Blasters), and Jithin M.S. (Northeast United) could be a few options that can play as the number nine for the Blues in the future. These players have performed well in ISL and have the potential to play for the nation.

The only striker with a positive goal-scoring attitude is Sunil Chhetri, who is still scoring goals for Bengaluru FC in ISL. Unfortunately, the Indian football legend retired from the national team earlier this year after serving the nation for a long period. Sunil Chhetri scored 94 goals in 151 games for the Blue Tigers. Chhetri is now also the all top scorer in the ISL, with 64 goals to his name.

Will any ISL club take a chance and play a quality Indian striker as their number nine in the coming seasons? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

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