Indian defender Chinglensana Singh, making his return to the national team after a lengthy injury layoff, reflected on India’s goalless draw against Mauritius in the Intercontinental Cup. While the result might have been considered underwhelming, Singh remained optimistic about the team’s progress under coach Manolo Marquez. He attributed the lackluster performance to the team’s limited time together, having only started training a couple of days before the match.
Singh, who partners with Rahul Bheke in the center-back pairing, highlighted the importance of understanding Marquez’s system and building cohesion within the team. He emphasized that communication and understanding between the players are crucial for success. “It helps to understand his system and how he wants us to play. As a centre-back, it is important to organise the team as well. This is a new team, with lots of young boys. So, we all have to understand the system. Once we adapt to that, everything will come naturally,” the 27-year-old defender stated.
Looking ahead to the upcoming match against Syria, a team ranked significantly higher than India, Singh stressed the need for focused preparation. He acknowledged the mental challenge posed by facing Syria, a team that defeated India in their previous encounter at the AFC Asian Cup.
Singh, however, maintained a confident outlook, stating that the team is working on addressing any pre-match nervousness through open communication and building confidence in their abilities. He emphasized the team’s focus on executing Marquez’s strategy and improving their performance as a collective unit. “Our preparations will be focusing on ourselves – how each can do better. This includes all 25 of us that are here. We need to understand the coach’s system and his style of play and execute that in the games with more confidence. Once we start doing what we should as a team, we don’t need to worry about who we are playing against, and everything will start clicking,” he said.
The defender concluded by acknowledging that the team is still in the early stages of building cohesion, but expressed confidence in their ability to improve as they continue to train and play together. “We want to win every game we play, but that did not happen yesterday [against Mauritius]. It is not an excuse, but it has just been two days, and in football, it takes a lot of time for the team to start understanding each other, to understand the system and the combination as well. There were a lot of positives as well. We kept the ball and dominated possession. Once we start scoring and finishing our chances, things will fall into place,” Chinglensana said.
The Indian team will be hoping to overcome their struggles and achieve a positive result against Syria in their next Intercontinental Cup match. With their focus on improving team cohesion and executing the coach’s strategy, they will be aiming to put on a better performance and demonstrate their potential on the international stage.
