India started with a 4-5-1 formation, the same formation that they had adopted versus Oman. Captain of the team was Gurpreeth, who was in gold. Ahead of him in stopper back, there was no Sendeesh. You had Adil Khan and Sharif. Right wing back was Pritham Kota, left wing back was Akash. Mishra playing his second consecutive game for the team. In the 5-man midfield, holding role was given to Apuya. Ahead of him was the duo of Suresh Singh Bang Jam and Anirutthapa. As the left midfielder, wing midfielder, you had Lalion Jwala Changte. On the right, you had Lists and Kolasso making his debut for the national team. The coach persisted with Manvi Singh as the lone striker. When you look at the UA team, the UA team was set up in a very simple 4-4-2 formation. However, when they were moving ahead, that formation would change. The fluidity was there. There was the interchanging of players. Not as much as what you saw Omani team doing versus India. But if they were playing on one flank, then one player would come back, then one midfielder would come up. Or if one midfielder would go back, then he would pull in an Indian defender with him. And the full back would make use of that space. The only difference being the Omani team, when they were playing versus India, they were playing it like this. The two-man midfielder, the UA team was not doing that because in the Omani team, this one player was given free range to move wherever he wanted to, with the UA team that was in the case. A lot of their movement, an interchanging of movement, was only persisting with the wing. So whether it be the right wing or the left wing. As far as India is concerned, and if you ask why are they playing a 4-5-1 formation, just because you really can't play anything else. You don't even have two to three strikers to choose from in this team. Sunil Chaitri had COVID, so he was not part of this camp. Ashant Panditra has barely seen any men in the ISL, so I'm guessing the coach will not put him out in the first 90 straight away. So you only had Manvi Singh to choose from. Also, the factors you need to realize when you're playing a team that's ranked as high as UAE, a lot of pressure is going to be coming on the Indian defense. That way, if you have a 3-man midfielder in the middle, and you have the two guys on the side, that's a 5-man midfield coupled with a 4-man defense. You would think you have the numbers in the box to withstand any pressure coming in from the opposing team. However, boy or boy, as the game went on, we were so wrong. UAE's plan of opening up India was primarily through the wing. And how they would do it is, if you had the two strikers here, the midfielders would be up. Stopper backs here, the wing backs would be here, full back would be here. And you would move like this. The way India was set up to defend, you saw that from the 3-4th mark or from the halfway line, there were at least four Indian players set up to defend versus the UAE, which meant that you only had two midfielders behind them, and then you had the four defenders. Now how the UAE countered that, and this is why I'm saying they opened us up in the wings quite easily, and throughout the game, they kept on doing the same thing. If you had one player, say a midfielder here, he would stick here, there would be a defender on him. Then one of these guys would pull in, he would go here, and then because this guy is moved here, defender Akash Mishra, and one of those in the first few early exchanges, Akash Mishra moved up. Now because this man is ball-watching, and a lot of the time, this is the characteristic of a team, that is new, right? You handed out close to 12 debuts in these two games, so you can understand that the sink between the players is not quite there. Because they're ball-watching, this free space, this entire free space was there for the UAE players to take. So if it is the fullback that is moving sometimes, he was moving here. If not, then what they would do is this man would move in, this man would move left, this man would move in. So again, quality of any international team, especially when they're playing against the weaker team, like India, I have to say that, is that they can interchange positions quite easily. India seemed very static in defense, India seemed very static in offense, and this interchangement of movement is really got what got the better of India. Another time, the same problem could be seen on the left flank. This was the 11th minute of the game, UAE's left flank India's right flank where you are Pritam Kothal and Liston Kolasso. A lack of communication, these are the characteristics of a new team. The ball was played on the left, this was with the UAE player. Liston is over here, there is Pritam Kothal here, he's blocking the man who is going to make that run outside. But for some reason, because the ball is here between these two players, Pritam thinks that the ball is going to be played here. So Pritam quickly comes closing into this guy. Liston also thinks he has to close this guy. Both the players went to the one guy, which meant there was again free space to open and UAE is an experienced team. He didn't quickly pay that pass. He saw both the players were coming in, he waited for them to come in. It's called sucking out to your players, and this man, without talking, is not like they're calling that much. This is all in sync because this is a team that's playing together, exploited the free space on the left. The ball was played to the man on the left flank. He went up and he tried putting a cross in. But these were just some of the ways he were opening India throughout, not just the first half, but throughout the 90 minutes. Now you asked, did India attack in this game? I'm just going to let you pause and think about it because you've got to look really hard. If India really did create any move or not, the only move that happened was in the 80th minute. Ishan Pandita had come in. Manvi Singh had moved out to the right. You saw the same thing happened in the Yomarn game. This was a miss pass by the UAE players in the middle of the game. That led to a transition for India exploiting it. How did that happen? The ball was being played out on the right flank. The UAE player tried finding the man on the right full back, tried finding the player inside. Instead there was a miss pass. The ball was won by the Indian player. Manvi Singh was here waiting for it on the right. He pounced. The good thing about this was, there was a first time pass. Throughout this game, India was lacking in basics in first touch, in weight of pass, in when to pass, in when to hold. In this time, what it needed was a first time pass and the weight of the pass needed to be right. Which is why the weight of the pass was perfect. He put Manvi Singh there. There was a player that followed him because the full back was already up in transition trying to get them to attack. There were I think 5 nil up at this time. Manvi Singh won the ball. Ishan moved in. There were other players that moved in. There was Hitesh Sharma who had handed his debut as well. And so you had a player following him. Manvi did well on the right because he's done that for ISL teams. A.T. Game over on the run. And cut the ball in and made sure at least he put a cross in. Made sure at least he put a cross in. So at least all the momentum that you created hasn't gone to waste. The ball was cleared by UA defender but felt of Hitesh. And Hitesh for some reason decided to take some more time on the ball. His first game also. So you can't really hold it against him. So he did have a shot at goal. Did not take the shot at goal. And that attack was thwarted by UAE. But this was the lone chance that India created which came courtesy of a mistake by the UAE team. In the two games versus UAE and Oman, you've handed a total of 13 debuts which is great on the one side. But on the other side, if you are playing against strong opponents and you don't get to play strong opponents like these on a regular basis, whether it's competition time or even if you're fixing a friendly. And your prime objective is to play 2023 Asian Cup. And the three games remaining are coming your way in June, which is now more than two months away. Should you be handing out so many debuts? Or should you not be better using this opportunity to drill your team, to drill your 13-14 players who are getting ready to play compact football? This was the problem for India versus UAE. They were not compact enough. They were being opened up in spaces and houses. While you had numbers behind, you always had numbers behind. The Indians were running and if you did a comparison of who ran more, the Indians probably ran more than UAE. But was it smart running? Was it running in the right place at the right time? Was it helping out each other? That is what was lacking for the Indian team. My point is this is an opportunity lost. An opportunity lost to drill your team, to drill your 13-14 players. That this is the way I want to play. And this is the way we will play in June vs. Qatar, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. And not go around beating a drum saying we've handed 13 debuts. What a coach, well done. No, that should not be the way. You hand out so many debuts when you're getting ready for a new cycle. You're in the middle of a cycle. In the middle of a very crucial cycle, that if you do not qualify for the Asian Cup, then you've taken five steps back. Food for thought. Think about it.