BHUBANESWAR: By the start of the decade, elite footballing sides had already started viewing the centre-forward as an obsolete position. The classical No 9, the team’s principal goal-threat who did little else apart from scoring goals, was asked to sink or swim. While a few goal-scoring greats adapted, most coaches had already moved past them — they started games without a single recognised centre-forward.
The likes of Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Francesco Totti were given new roles, a false 9. Or a withdrawn forward. Their primary jobs wouldn’t be goal-scoring but to drop deep, move down both channels and pull the defence apart with their off-the-ball movements. Their main threat came from their ability to pick a pass thanks to outstanding peripheral vision. On Wednesday, the Indian hockey team tried their own variation of the ‘False 9’ and it brought home the desired results.
Akashdeep Singh, whose enthusiasm for running and tracking back is well chronicled, has sometimes copped flak for his ability to miss gilt-edged chances. The 23-year-old’s moderate goal-scoring record reflects this fact. With Ramandeep Singh — the World No 5’s top goal-scorer in 2017 — unavailable, the Punjab lad may well have expected to be the country’s leading forward at the World Cup.
He did start against South Africa but not in his favoured role as statemate Mandeep Singh got to play upfront. However, Akashdeep, whose in-game intelligence has helped him to be a starter under three previous coaches (Terry Walsh, Roelant Oltmans and Sjoerd Marine), reprised the role that Fabregas so famously played for Spain at the 2012 Euros. He dropped deep, linked up play and was a nuisance in the South African third of the pitch. He harried and chased the visitors whenever they tried to recycle possession. The rewards he got for the shift he put in was well deserved.
For starters, he played a part in all five goals — he was the injector from the penalty corner for the first goal. He scored the second before claiming the pre-assist for India’s third with a sensational cross field pass which set Mandeep free down the South African left. He set up the fourth with a 25-yard pass which found Lalit Upadhyay inside the D. For the fifth, his constant buzzing inside the D dragged two South African bodies which helped the combination of Chinglensana Singh and Upadhyay to win a penalty corner from which Simranjeet Singh scored his second and India’s fifth.
Considering his overall excellence on Thursday, it wasn’t surprising to hear coach Harendra Singh describe him as ‘a leader’ among the ‘attacking midfielders in this side’. “We have a leader in every department and Akashdeep is the leader among attacking midfielders (who play this role),” he said. His devastating movement would have excited Harendra more because it was he who asked Akashdeep to play between the lines at the Asian Games.
Harendra’s decision to refashion the country’s most experienced available striker was a no-brainer in his opinion because of his excellent peripheral vision. “He (Akashdeep) has very good peripheral vision. He is lethal as a link man.” In fact, he likened Akashdeep’s role to the one Dhanraj Pillay played since the 2002 Olympics.
“If you go back 15 years, Dhanraj changed his role from the 2002 World Cup. He became a playmaker and Deepak (Thakur) and Prabhjot (Singh) scored.” On Wednesday, Simranjeet and Mandeep scored. If India are to to successfully tackle the Belgium problem on Sunday, both of them will again have to dovetail perfectly with Akashdeep on Sunday.