NEW DELHI: It has been four months since

took over the role of Indian football's technical director. The 57-year-old Romanian has been given the task to put a proper structure in place at the grassroots level. So far, Isac has been working with the youth teams, formulating plans to get more and more kids to play the sport, and get skilled coaches into the system. He has also kept watch on the senior national team and its progress. In an exclusive interview with TOI, Isac assessed the Indian team's performance and also talked about the lacunas that need to be addressed.

Excerpts:

You must have watched the senior team's performance in the King's Cup and Intercontinental Cup. What's your assessment of the national team?

We need to develop a winning mindset. You lose 3-1 or 6-1, a loss is a loss. We need to learn from a loss, but we should also learn twice after winning a game. We shouldn't go into a tournament thinking of just participating. Our aim should be to win games. In terms of performance, we need to be able to play 90 minutes of high-intensity football.

What's your report card stating then...?

It is too early to pass a judgement on the national team. I can see positive steps being taken. The head coach's selections have been good. The team is a healthy mix of young players and the experienced ones. The communication levels between a highly-experienced player, say a

, and the young ones is good. But we need to be more competitive.

You are talking about developing winning mentality. In that pursuit, where are we lacking?

How do you forge the winning mentality if you don't have the fitness level? They need to last the distance. We need to create a more analytical setup. The physical, mental, technical and tactical aspects of the national team need to be analysed.

A lot has been talked and written about the national team's passing accuracy and positional awareness. Your take…

In the opponent's half, we don't have the same passing accuracy since the pressure is coming. We don't have time to think. In the

or the ISL, the passing accuracy is more than 80 percent because there is no pressure, nobody is pressing you and you can pass the ball easily. For me, the indicator is the international standard. Our comparative approach should be with Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia. There we are far behind in terms of handling pressure.

What's your review of head coach Igor Stimac?

India is very lucky to have a coach like Igor (Stimac). He is a real professional. He is very cool and passionate about the game. We are on the same page regarding which direction India's playing philosophy should go.

There is a tendency to hold on to the ball for quite some time. Even Stimac mentioned that in one of his post-match interviews. That also needs to be sorted out?

Our players keep the ball for 5 seconds on an average whereas a European player keeps the ball for 2.5 seconds. Why should we keep the ball for 5 seconds or 10 seconds? That principle needs to be changed because the tempo of the game gets affected. The opponent's defensive framework gets in place, there are no more passing options, and there is no more space if you hold on to the ball for a longer time. Playing speed needs to improve by leaps and bounds.

India is going to host the

U-17 Women's World Cup next year, but there isn't much buzz about the tournament like it was in 2017 when India organized the FIFA U-17 Men's World Cup…

We want to make a buzz, but at the same time be humble. We don't want to be just happy that we're hosting a FIFA event. What happens if we lose all the games in the tournament? We should not be happy just to host the tournament, we should be happy when we not only host but also perform well so that the entire nation is proud of the national team.