Analysis: How Kibu Vicuna can learn from Eelco Schattorie's use of Sahal

The 23-year-old is regarded as one of Indian football's best young talents, but failed to impress last season.

For a team that reached the final of the Indian Super League (ISL) twice in the first three seasons alone, Kerala Blasters have been going through a lean phase in the rest of the three campaigns. Finishing outside top four in the ISL is now becoming a regular occurrence for the Men in Yellow, much to the disappointment of their fans.

When one takes the recently-concluded 2019-20 season into account, it can be said that the Blasters’ campaign was marred to an extent by injuries to some of their key stars including Sandesh Jhingan - but again, not many fans can honestly say that they would have at least made it into the playoffs had they kept their best players fit.

One of the biggest talking points from Blasters' poor showing in the season would be how head coach Eelco Schattorie failed to properly include Indian starlet Sahal Abdul Samad in his plans. Before and after the term, he has often found himself facing all sorts of questions on the hugely popular midfielder, ranging from whether he deserves to play more to what his ideal starting position on the field would be.

“Since the time he (Schattorie) first met me, he has been promising that he will make me the best midfielder in India,” Sahal notably said in January 2020 during an exclusive chat with Khel Now. Needless to say, the statement attracted a lot of attention from both fans and pundits of the game. Following a largely underwhelming campaign last season, Schattorie explained why he needs more time to work with the player, in an interview last week.

“There are few people who made fun of me on Twitter and otherwise when I said that I will make Sahal the best midfielder of India. If you give me time, I would. I know exactly what a talent needs. In the end, the talent should also contribute and want to learn. In all the teams I worked I had many talents,” he said.

“The biggest thing to look at a young boy who is making it to the senior team through the junior levels is winning mentality. Secondly, either you play on the wing or the midfield; you need to do a certain job. Sahal has never been used to fitting in a system. I said that some players have never been coached. It was made to look like a comment on the previous coaches. No, I look at players who can pick information. Some players play on intuition. People would say why don’t you use that intuition more? I do," he added.

“In the last few games, he was really working hard and I will always praise a player. He has intuition, but consistency really takes time. That is also because of his background.”

“He comes from a football school from Dubai or Abu Dhabi which does not have competitive football. However, if you give me more time, I will definitely put all my efforts on him to improve the player,” Schattorie concluded.

The truth of the matter, however, is that despite his drawbacks, 23-year-old Sahal Abdul Samad is still one of the most creative players at the club and not a one-trick pony as claimed by the Dutch coach. The midfielder, who started 16 out of 18 matches under David James in the 2018-19 season, featured only nine times in Schattorie's starting lineup last time out – and still managed to register a couple of assists, one of which was a match-saving effort during a 2-2 draw against Jamshedpur FC on December 12.

Throughout the campaign, whenever he was on the pitch, he also showed glimpses of his potential on numerous occasions – and that should ideally serve as a boost for Kibu Vicuna, who is all set to replace Schattorie as the new head coach of the Blasters.

Before going into the details, let us take a look at Vicuna's history: Prior to his arrival in India, he had served as the assistant to several top coaches, one of who is Jan Urban, also a former footballer for Poland. During his time in Spain, he has also helped in the development of several players including Raul Garcia, Cesar Azpilicueta and Nacho Monreal - and the Spanish FA has even acknowledged his talent, having certified him mainly on his tactical discipline and physical preparation.

As a result, when he joined Mohun Bagan last season, it was a no-brainer for Vicuna to call up some players from the junior team and start developing them. Soon, three of these players - SK Sahil, Subha Ghosh and Kiyan Nassiri - made it to Mohun Bagan's first team in the I-League, proving the Spaniard's experiment to be successful.

It was SK Sahil who undoubtedly showed the biggest growth under the 48-year-old, after the latter took a very bold step by deploying him in midfield, instead of his usual position at centre-back. Looking at his wide range of passing abilities, he tried the 19-year-old at midfield alongside Joseba Beitia and Fran Gonzalez. Although it did not work well initially, Vicuna took care not to mess with the youngster's confidence and continued to trust him at his new position, and that worked wonders.

With every match, he gained more confidence and his risk-taking ability increased with his passes. In his earliest matches as a midfielder, his passes were mostly vertical. That changed slowly, as he eventually became confident enough to send in some through balls too, whenever needed. The away match against Real Kashmir in extreme conditions on January 5 this year became the turning point for the team and for Sahil as well, as he made an assist and was involved in the buildup for the second goal in their 2-0 win.

Sahil and Sahal not only share a similarity in their names, but their playing styles are also largely identical. At Mohun Bagan, Vicuna needed Sahil to recycle possession and initiate buildups, allowing the likes of Beitia and Gonzalez to have a little more freedom in attack. Hence, with the Spaniard all set to join Kerala Blasters after a title-winning season in the I-League, one can expect him to restore the Keralite’s status as a playmaker in midfield - as his philosophy predominantly focuses on a player who is comfortable on the ball in the middle of the park and has the ability to dictate the tempo of a match.

This, in turn, will be good news for him as he had a largely forgetful season under Schattorie where he was deployed unusually in wide areas, resulting in him falling down the pecking order.

Another factor that comes to our immediate notice is how patient Vicuna can be. Over the past few years, he has shown that he will definitely give chances to youngsters as he believes in developing them to a much better level. This is also another area where he clearly stands out when compared to Schattorie, who was often seen overlooking Sahal's importance owing to his tendency to make mistakes.

Vicuna always allows his players to be themselves. In fact, let us see what happened with Nongdamba Naorem (who will also join KBFC, incidentally). Naorem likes to dribble and keep the ball, which is not suited to Vicuna's passing system. Despite so, he tweaked his formation to integrate the 20-year-old winger and make him effective.

The above case is just another example that proves how Vicuna spots talent and gets the best out of them. In case of Sahal, he is already a star, which means that it should be easier for him to fit into his passing and possession system nicely.

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