Opinion: How can Indian football team solve their striker crisis?

Lack of a proper number 9 has cost the Indian football team a lot of games in recent times.

The Indian football team had a forgettable year in 2025, which finished with their embarrassing 1-0 defeat to Bangladesh in the AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers clash. Even though many persisting issues need to be looked at, the most glaring issue within the Indian team set-up is that of scoring goals.

Indeed, the Blue Tigers only managed to score eight goals in their 11 matches across 2025, and they also went without a goal for six matches!

Be it Manolo Marquez or the current head coach, Khalid Jamil, neither was really able to solve India’s goal-scoring problems in 2025. However, unless the Blue Tigers can resolve their goal-scoring issues, they will not be able to take major steps forward in climbing the FIFA World Rankings in 2026.

For the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Indian football team set-up, the most important thing is to solve their striker crisis. The Blue Tigers will not be able to prosper that well unless they are able to find more clinical strikers who are able to finish off moves clinically and score goals on a consistent basis.

However, to solve their goal troubles with more reliable forwards, the Indian football team and the AIFF have to come up with some necessary regulations that must be followed strictly. Here are some ways the Indian football team can solve their striker crisis.

Appoint a quality assistant coach

Even though AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey indicated last year that they might look to bring some world-class former footballers to help the strikers improve their goal-scoring qualities, that won’t exactly help for the long term. The real need of the hour is for the Indian Football Team to appoint a knowledgeable coach who can help the players improve their work in the final third.

They need an experienced coach who can work alongside Khalid Jamil and specifically work on the finishing drills for the Blue Tigers. Perhaps a foreign coach has to be appointed for that, but they need someone who will bring in data-driven analytics to work on which aspects of finishing that each attacking player in the squad can work on.

If they acquire someone who can genuinely bring in new ideas and appoint encouraging drills to help the forwards prosper, then India can perhaps see an uptick in their goals. A new coach can bring a sense of excitement for the strikers, who could gain fresh ideas on how to put away chances clinically and also work on their positions to get into more goal-scoring positions.

Encourage the younger forwards in the Indian football team

In 2026, the Indian football team will probably need to rely on younger players to solve the issues within the team. Gone are the times when they could solely rely upon Sunil Chhetri to score goals for them and save the day. He is now (seemingly) firmly retired, and it’s now time for the Blue Tigers to potentially find the next Sunil Chhetri.

Khalid Jamil needs fresh faces in his squad to bring in a sense of excitement among the fans, and he needs to appoint younger strikers, too. It’s perhaps time to give more exposure to Mohun Bagan striker Suhail Bhat, who has four goals in 34 appearances for the Mariners so far.

The 20-year-old has already made his debut for the Indian football team, but he needs more game time on a regular basis to really thrive at the international stage. Bhat needs to be honed to be a no. 9 option for the long term, with the young forward boasting impressive finishing skills and excellent positional sense to finish off chances in a clinical fashion.

Also Read: Indian Football Teams’ Calendar 2026: Important dates, full schedule & more

Encourage ISL clubs to give more playing time to Indian strikers

Perhaps it’s time for the AIFF to create a stern rule for the Indian Super League (ISL) clubs to ensure they can help develop better goal-scorers for the national team, too. Like the former U-23 players rule that was implemented in Indian football until a few years ago, perhaps it’s time to implement a rule that helps the growth of the quality of the Indian forwards.

A possible rule that can be implemented is for teams to field Indian strikers for a specific number of games in every season. Doing that will ensure that teams aren’t at a loss for investing in clinical foreigners and that more Indian players can actually spearhead an ISL side’s frontline in competitive matches.

Doing so will help the Indian forwards get more minutes against quality opponents, which will help them prepare for the wear and tear of the international matches. The ISL clubs also need to do their own work in helping the development of Indian forwards and help increase the quality of their goal-scoring prowess in tough matches.

Unless the Indian football fraternity can work as a whole to help solve the goal-scoring issues within the Indian football team, things are unlikely to be solved anytime soon. Be it the ISL clubs, coaches and the AIFF, everyone has proactively worked to ensure fans get to see more entertaining football from the national team going forward and that the Indian side can score more goals going forward.

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