ISL 2017-18: Indian national team defenders going through a rough patch of form

Pritam Kotal, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika and Narayan Das - first choice backline for Stephen Constantine have hardly impressed this season...

There is still a good twelve months to go for the 2019 AFC in the but the Indian national team head coach Stephen Constantine will be a bit worried. His top four choices in defence have looked a shadow of their former selves in the ongoing season of the 2017-18 (ISL).



Full-backs Pritam Kotal and Narayan Das and centre-halves Sandesh Jhingan and Anas Edathodika - the combination which started seven of the nine matches for the national team in 2017 see none of their respective ISL sides currently in the top four.



While the quartet together shipped in just three goals in the entire 2017 donning national colours, their ISL teams combined have conceded 46 goals in total while they were on the pitch in 26 games - a shambolic consolidated average of 1.76 goals per game.



Kotal, who was the first outfield player picked from the ISL draft, has been entrusted to lead the team but the Lions find themselves in dire straits having lost six games on the trot during the season. Not surprisingly, the capital-based side are rooted to the bottom of the table with Kotal himself at fault for conceding several of the goals Delhi has leaked.





The right-back, who was in lethal form for in last season's , is known to overlap the rightwinger and send in crosses after crosses but that sight has been a rarity this season. In eight games, Kotal's Dynamos have conceded 21 goals - the most in the league.He has played all games in entirety for his team bar one when he was substituted with half an hour left on the clock against . An own goal against and a yellow card has only made his season worse.For Anas Edathodika, the story has been completely different. After helping Jamshedpur keep a clean sheet in their first game, he suffered an injury against in their second match that ruled him out for five weeks. But on his return, he saw his side ship in two goals in a 2-2 draw at home against FC.The centre-back, who also featured for Delhi Dynamos and Mohun Bagan last season was only handed his first senior cap by Constantine in March 2017 at the age of 30. But he has been a regular fixture for the Blue Tigers ever since. Edathodika has bloomed late and has an injury-prone career to blame for that.

While Sandesh Jhingan was handed the armband for the national side in the absence of Sunil Chhetri and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the Tri-nations series and was subsequently named skipper by Kerala Blasters as well. But he has failed to marshall the Tuskers' defence ably so far this season. Despite the presence of stars like Iain Hume, Dimitar Berbatov and Wes Brown, Kerala Blasters have only won a solitary game and also had their manager fired at the turn of the new year.



Jhingan, who debuted for on 12 March 2015 along with Kotal - also Constantine's first match in-charge in his second spell won the emerging player of the year award in ISL's first season. But the current edition has had no mercy on the Punjab-born defender. A return of 11 goals shipped in eight games does not look that bad on paper but the manner in which Jhingan has been at fault for the majority of them is disappointing to look at for any Indian team supporter.

Jhingan has also been rash in his challenges and his erraticness sees him just a yellow card away from being suspended. This, however, is not an overnight development. During the end stages of the 2016/17 season, Jhingan had a poor Federation Cup with where he conceded a late penalty against in the semifinals which almost scuppered the Blues and his numbers in the I-League were also poor.





Left-back Narayan Das' stock in Indian football has been floundering at a rapid rate. He was even dropped by Constantine in 's most recent game, with Jerry Lalrinzuala being the favoured option.Starting the first seven ISL games, he has only completed two of those and has one booking to his name. FC Goa's defence has been leaky and Das is part of the backline which has conceded 15 goals in eight games. However, when Das has been on the pitch for his 515 minutes, they have conceded 12 - an average of a goal in less than each half.Having made his debut way back in 2013, Das is the most experienced amongst the full-backs but this is the second season running where his performances have been poor.The ISL completes its halfway stage on Friday and the aforementioned names have another half of the season to stake their claim for a spot in the national team. Constantine is set to pick his list of probables for India's AFC Asian Cup qualifier against Kyrgyzstan in the first week of March and improved performances from the lot will be expected.While the Blue Tigers gear up for an all-important year in the leadup to the Asian Cup, Constantine will have no hesitation in trying out new faces in the SAFF Championship in September if things do not look bright. It is imperative for the quartet to overcome their slump in form in the second half of the domestic season.