India aiming to ‘grow’ from boring Mauritius draw, says head coach Manolo Marquez

HYDERABAD — Manolo Marquez’s life as head coach of the football team had a forgettable start as India drew against Mauritius, ranked 179th by FIFA with a goalless draw in the side’s first match of the Intercontinental Cup. The clean sheet was the highlight of the stalemate against Mauritius. The head coach, however, was mindful that improvement does not come from a flick of a button. Rather, it is a long and winding road.

“My feeling is that our first game was rather boring, but I cannot criticise the attitude of the players, who gave 100 percent,” said the Spanish coach. We could only get two training sessions, though that is not an excuse. The best thing is that I saw the players put in all the effort and that we did not concede. We had a few good performances, and there are a few other things that we need to correct, but it’s a good point to grow from,” Manolo Marquez told AIFF’s media team.

India will now play Syria on September 9 in their next match of the Intercontinental Cup, a match that could decide the fate of the three-team competition.

Five days away from the crucial tie, Marquez is on a mission to find the correct combinations.

“Right now, it’s not about finding the best players. It’s more about figuring out the right combinations in different areas of the pitch, and how we can manage different situations as a team,” said Marquez.

“One position where we are quite well settled is that of the centre-backs. Rahul (Bheke) and Sana (Konsham Chinglensana Singh) had a very good game against Mauritius, and there are more like Sandesh (Jhingan), Anwar (Ali), Mehtab (Singh), and others waiting on the sidelines,” said Márquez.

Bheke, one of the standout performers for India against Mauritius, had a rather special night on September 3. The 33-year-old had the opportunity to lead the national team out with the captain’s armband for the first time. “It was certainly a proud moment for my family and me. I’m honoured to have been handed that responsibility, and now I certainly crave it more,” said Bheke.

The India defender echoed his coach’s words and felt that step-by-step improvement was the way forward for the Blue Tigers.

“We’re staying positive. We’ve had our first point under the new head coach, and we’ve done a lot of things well. The only area we need to work on is the conversion of goals. We must focus, and score the goals,” said Bheke. “The coach had a clear idea of how we needed to play, and the boys tried hard to implement them. We have to make sure that we just keep doing it better in the next game,” he added.