Former India Football Captain Bhaichung Bhutia Wants This Attribute In Team India From New Head Coach Khald Jamil

Picture : @bhaichung15 /x

Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia has stressed that newly-appointed national team head coach Khalid Jamil will need to focus on consistency and attacking football if India is to make strides at the continental and global stage.

Jamil recently guided India to a third-place finish in the CAFA Nations Cup, where they defeated higher-ranked Oman 3-2 (1-1 in regulation time) on penalties to claim a historic bronze medal.

Speaking on Jamil’s appointment, Bhutia told ANI, “I think Khalid will have to begin with consistency and with new players and good strikers from U-23 because he has to build for the future.”

“I think the main focus has to be qualifying for the World Cup and performance in the Asian Cup. These are the two most important. If you really want to reach that World Cup standard, I think we will have to play good quality, attacking football to make sure that we qualify on those merits. Only defending or depending on dead ball is not going to take us far,” he added.

India’s FIFA ranking has recently slumped to 133, Bhutia called “a disaster in terms of performance.” He pointed out that poor relations between the federation and coaches had played a big role in the decline.