What went wrong for India in SAFF U20 Championship 2024?

The Blue Colts lost their footing in the tournament despite being favourites.

India suffered an embarrassing defeat in the semi-final of the SAFF U-20 Championship against Bangladesh. After losing in the penalty shootout, the Blue Colts were eliminated from the championship, ensuring that the 2024 edition will see a new champion crowned.

But for the five-time SAFF U-20 champions, the entire 2024 edition ended up leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of the fans. India did win both their matches in the group stages, but played some very uneventful football and lacked the spark that is expected from such a young team.

A few elements went wrong for Ranjan Chaudhari’s side, all culminating in the embarrassing loss in the semi-final. But what exactly went wrong for the Indian side in the SAFF U-20 Championship?

Selection Questions

The implementation of new management was bound to bring forward changes in the U-20 set-up, but major questions were raised on certain selections made by Chaudhari for the matches.

A big snub for a majority of the matches was that of influential midfielder Manglenthang Kipgen, who was India’s best player at the 2023 SAFF U-20 Championship – scoring two goals in the final against Pakistan, to take home both MOTM (Man of the Match) and MVP (most valuable player of the tournament) awards.

Despite his creative brilliance and goal-scoring potential, Kipgen was benched for two of the three games. Even East Bengal’s young sensation Vanlalpeka Guite was snubbed on occasions, something which came back to haunt the Indian side. It resulted in India scoring just three goals in as many games, a far cry from the nine goals they scored in the 2023 edition.

Training Method and Playing Style Problems

A major issue that troubled the training camp for the Indian side ahead of the SAFF U-20 Championship and also when the tournament was happening was the training session.

The exact methods of the training sessions were questioned by many footballers involved in the squad. Many individuals considered these methods backward, with the sessions opting for old-school football and not the fluid, attacking football players are used to playing at the club level.

This also impacted the playing style of the Blue Colts, with many players looking out-of-sync with each other and the playing style. The Indian side lacked chemistry and that ‘wow factor’ in the attacking positions, as players could not properly comprehend how to link up attacking moves or progress the ball up the pitch into the opposition box. This resulted in India creating very few goal-scoring chances and only scoring three goals.

Ranjan Chaudhari as India’s head coach

A few weeks before the 2024 SAFF U-20 Championship, the AIFF (All India Football Federation) abruptly announced Ranjan Chaudhari as the new head coach.

There was no real explanation about the selection process for this role and how many options they had interviewed or talked to. Chaudhari has earned his reputation in Indian Football for coaching the reserve teams of prominent teams like East Bengal and has been tied to the game for decades.

But his entire playing philosophy is something that is probably not suited for the current young players, who are used to playing under a more ‘modern set-up’ in the major Indian Super League (ISL) teams. That is why Chaudhari’s selection didn’t turn out to be a popular one, with players questioning his methods, training techniques, and how he wanted them to play.

The AIFF held a constructive selection process for Manolo Marquez’s appointment as the India senior team’s head coach, inviting managers to provide their CVs and holding proper interviews.

But something similar was not held for the junior team’s coach, raising questions on the AIFF’s motive for appointing Chaudhari as that experiment fell flat.

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