End of an error: Manolo Marquez scored an own-goal with AIFF assist

Open Extended Reactions

Manolo Marquez has left his job as the head coach of the Indian men's football team less than a year after taking it. He spent 10 of those 11 months also being the manager of FC Goa through an entire domestic football season. One trophy for FC Goa, one win all year for India. Balanced, as things ought to be. Not.

The AIFF need to be questioned about the reasoning and the lack of due process involved in making the decision that saw Marquez hold two jobs at the same time and held accountable for its role in the disaster that unfolded. But we all know what the AIFF is about. Marquez? One of the ISL's best ever coaches cannot be absolved of the blame for walking into this with his eyes open.

Clearly, when Marquez had taken the job, he knew of the challenge that he would be taking up. Either he overestimated his own ability to manage a club and a country at the same time, or he underestimated just how difficult it would be. Marquez has been a coach for almost 35 years, at various levels of the sport. He would've known that managing a national team was a job on its own. It should never have been treated as a side-gig, like he had done until the most recent national team camp, which began in mid-May. At best, taking the national team job was a misjudgment of his ability. At worst, it was negligence. Neither paint a pretty picture of Marquez.

Now, a year later, what has that led to? India have won one game of football out of eight that they've played, and even that was a friendly against low-ranked Maldives. They've failed to score in all but three of those eight games.

Obviously, during the ISL season, his commitments with Goa on a day-to-day basis took precedence. And there lies the problem. The national team cannot be neglected to secondary status through the course of the season. It is simply too sacrosanct for that to happen.

Qualification for the Asian Cup is a must for Indian football. Shibu Preman / AIFF

Beyond that, from a practical perspective, Marquez dealt himself an impossible hand. Throughout the Indian football season, he had no breaks. He had matches to prepare for with Goa, training sessions to lead and plan. He had no choice but to be focused just on Goa. The time between international breaks, so crucial for national team coaches, was just not available to him. The thing is, though, he's no novice to Indian football -- he knew all this before he said yes to the job.

These are things to consider even before we get to the curious decisions that Marquez made tactically, and in terms of his selections.

First of all, there was the big Sunil Chhetri question. When he took the job, he knew that Chhetri wasn't an option. What had endeared him to the AIFF in the first place was how he improved Indian players in his roles at Goa and Hyderabad FC. He tried that at the national team, and saw decent results, too -- Farukh Choudhary and Irfan Yadwad both had impressive outings playing as a striker during the games against Vietnam and Malaysia late last year.

However, when it came to crunch time with the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, Marquez chose to go backwards. He decided that the man to replace Sunil Chhetri would be an older Sunil Chhetri. Obviously, Chhetri had had a great ISL season with 14 goals in it, but that Bengaluru FC version of Chhetri needed Edgar Mendez and Ryan Williams around him. In this Indian team, Marquez tasked Chhetri with being the Mendez, the Williams and the Chhetri from the Bengaluru setup. It was easy to see how that would be a project doomed to fail.

Sunil Chhetri AIFF

The decision to start Chhetri lasted one qualifier. Against Hong Kong, he was benched, for Ashique Kuruniyan to start up top. Which was curious in itself -- on his best of days, Ashique isn't a goal-scorer. He never has been. What he is, is a tireless runner on the left flank. An outlet. Someone who can dribble past a full-back at will. Almost unsurprisingly, he missed a sitter in the first half.

Similarly unsurprising was India's inability to dominate the game against Bangladesh, as Marquez chose to bench Suresh Singh Wangjam, clearly one of India's best two midfielders alongside Apuia Ralte. Young Ayush Dev Chhetri struggled to impose himself on that game.

In his eight games in charge, Marquez danced between a three-at-the-back system, a 4-4-2 and a 4-3-3. India's players haven't been good enough in Marquez's stint, but they have also not been set up to succeed by a coach who spent his whole tenure searching for that ideal combination and never found it.

Now that Marquez has left, what a colossal waste of everyone's time this one year has been. A year later, India are worse off than when Igor Stimac was sacked. You see, unlike last June, they're now in a position where they might not qualify for the AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2027.

Imagine that. A 24-team Asian Cup. India could very easily not be in it, all a result of a very avoidable error, both from the federation and the man who will look back on how he bit off more than he could chew.

Click here to read article