Fc Goa have advantage Zico

With five days remaining for FC Goa to start their campaign in the 2016 edition of the Indian Super League (ISL) four players – Gregory Arnolin, Subhashish Chowdhury , Denzil Franco and Luciano Sobrosa- are the road to recovery. From among them, Gregory is crucial but with Zico managing the ship and Lucio steering, the first tie will not much disturb FC Goa’s plans of winning the third edition of this competition.

FC Goa head coach Zico has been the star of the ISL and the brains that have seen the club manifest itself in vibrant colours with umpteen injuries in the last two editions of the tournament. Defender and captain Lucio has steadied the ship since his arrival last year and going by the way the team has started its practise in Goa – the ride should not be bumpy this time too.

FC Goa have started with nine defenders and midfielders and three strikers and goalkeepers. From the practise – that started at 3.40 pm and winded up at 5.50pm – Zico appears to be gauging the best from among the lot at his disposal and the Brazilian will this year to expect his boys to play anywhere.

Defenders Gregory Arnolin, Luciano Sobrosa and Denzil Franco along with goalkeeper Subhashish Chowdhury did not practise with the team at Nagoa grounds yesterday. From the four, Gregory appears closest to gain recovery before FC Goa’s opener.

The recovery of  the other three  will not worry the head coach much- unless there are unexpected injuries through the season-  as  he seems to have buffered the FC Goa line up with some judicious  foreign signings. The new foreign signing looked young; slender in the manner they tackled the ball and quick. If their presence has not decreased the average of the team, the overall speed of play looks to have been taken to a higher tempo. This in itself will be advantage designed by Zico before the start of the ISL.

Laxmikant  Kattimani is definite to start below the horizontal.

Lucio, Rafael Dumas and Gregory Arnolin should be the starting three  ,if not , Zico will have to choose from Fulganco Cardozo, Keenan Almeida, Debabrata Roy and Raju  Gaikwad. Fulganco played on the left for a major part of training yesterday and was often advised by the coach where he should be positioning himself. From nine – even with two recovering from injury- Zico appears to have a lot to choose from.

With nine midfielders, the midfielders too appears spoilt for choice. A team is entitled to play with six foreign players. With three in the defense, Zico will have to decide whether to take three in the midfield and leave the strike to Robin Singh or give Rafael  a chance- he looked sharper then Robin during practise today – or expect the midfielders to play a more advancing game as they did last season.

From the nine midfielders at his disposal, Romeo Fernandes could get the first nod in going by his form in practise. Joffre should start along with either Julio Cesar, Richardson or Trinidade  Goncalves (the new trio from Brazil). Mandar Rao Desai may find a nod – depending on where his final pick of six foreign players. Pratesh Shirodkar and Sahil Tavora will have to wait.

FC Goa had a problem last season- the team became over reliant on Reinaldo as one of their foreign players started the season with an injury and hence could never recover to play. The story appears different today. Though it has three strikers, the onus appears to be falling either on Rafael or Robin Singh.

Between Rafael and Robin, the former showed more skill, anticipation and ability to strike aerially or with shots. The latter is more of an aerial play and has really not played in India after his injury with Delhi Dynamo in the last ISL. Yet, he showed promise but Zico is not the type to take promises lightly.