Nearly about one month to go for the hero ISL season 2021-22, As many of the clubs have just started their Pre-season preparations, many have been entered to the bio secured bubble to complete their mandatory quarantine. Chennayin FC is one among the eleven teams in the league who seems to have a great backpower in their squad. Key foreign recruitments have brought in a real stability to their squad. Now, the Montenegrin gaffer Bozidar Bandovic needs to put the jiggs of the puzzle in the right manner to get that stability to work well.
•The Tactical set-up
The 52-year old Montenegrin is well Asian experieced, having a three year stint at Thai League club Buriram United, where he was quite successful to finish Buriram on top four for the consecutive three years. Prior to be the head coach of the team, Bozidar had worked as the technical director of Buriram helping him to know the pulse of the league and acclimatize with the condition.
Bozidar seems to be a hard follower of typical 4-3-3, where he brings modulations according to the style which the opposition plays. Pushing the wing-backs high and wide where one of the central deffender dropps into the midfield creating a three at the back, helping to have a tight hold of play and stability.
Sometimes he also go for a 5 at the back where 3 midfielders remains constant and two strikers waiting to hit hard in transitions. Generally, teams which approaches aggressively makes Bozidar to change his system. Possesion based Counter attacks had been a key element helping Bandovic to get positive from the match. Possesions are being used for controlling the tempo, and giving time span for the players to find space and move vertical. Crosses from Wing backs or wingers are key to connect the strikers if the central zone is blocked.
•The Chennayin Squad
Depth in the midfield is the most significant part of Chennayin’s squad. Having Thapa for creativity and the Polish defensive midfielder Ariel Borysiuk, will provide extra stealth to Chennayin’s midfield. Addition of the Hungrian attacking general Vladimir Koman is key to watch player in Chennayin’s squad list. Koman is a player who can provide you all packages of passes, giving Bozidar options to play different style of passing game. Koman is a perfect feeder for a team, his through balls down the flanks helps the wingers to be active throughout the match, chipping balls direct to the strikers suits the style which Bozidar used to play in Thailand. Koman can provide deep penetrative balls splitting the defensive band apart, and becomes even mode dangerous during counter attacks. Presence of Raphael Crivellaro will give Chennayin to create and exploit spaces in oppositions half. His set piece capability will give Bozidar wide range options to utilise.
Workrate is the key factor which will help Chennayin to sustain their run in the league. Indian players like Germanpreet, Edwin, Ariel has such attributes which will help them to sustain the constrains made by the opponent in the midfield. Speedy wingers like Ninthoi and Chhangthe will help Chennayin to create chances directly or in-directly by utilising their pace and ball control. By looking the capability Possesion based counters may be the style which Bozidar may implement. Having players to hold the play and intercept the play if needed, possesion implementation won’t be a big issues for Chennayin.
• Deffensive back
Chennayin has deep depth in their all departments except Central-Defense. The New foreign Serbian Central deffender has immense potential to fire which can make the business of the opposition attackers tough to tougher. Having pace to burst and physical strength to intercept aggressively makes Damjanovic special among the deffenders in the league. He can charge the attackers compramising his defensive line and can convert the intercepted ball into transitional attacks. Even if the attacker succesfuly dribble past the deffender he can track back to the space without taking much timespan. Aggressive nature makes him to commit into unwanted fouls which may lead into booking, in the current scenario. Indian defenders like Deepak Devrani is among the promising hot protects which would help Chennayin to maintain their backline. Salam Ranjan is also another central defender who can take place if needed, but current form and other X-factors may lead into uncertainity which will come-in and end at pre-season routines.
Wing backs like Narayan Das, Reagan Singh can help to implement the beautify of overlapping. Overlapping and Underlapping of the wing backs additional to the workrate will help Chennayin to maintain balance and stability at the wings.
•What would be the style?
Chennayin may approach a flexible style of Possesional game, where transitional attack would be a key element in their foot. Pushing the players aggresively to retain the ball and converting them into an open counter attack. Players like Koman would help to penetrate the defensive line during transitions to the striker Łukasz who has the capability to implement deep runs. Defensive midfielders like Thapa, Ariel, could work as a Box-to-Box depending upon the side through which they intiates their gameplay.
~Vinayak S Raj
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