ISL 2022-23: Indian players are the most coachable – Stephen Constantine

East Bengal FC head coach Stephen Constantine has showered praise on the Indian players. Constantine, who had also earlier worked with the Indian team, believes the Indian players are the most coachable. Constantine feels the players have the hunger to keep improving their game and it is a positive sign for Indian football going forward.

India’s young players have shown the ability to go a long way in their careers and they have definitely shown an upward swing in their improvement graph. Many young players are rising through the ranks and they are always improving their game while playing under the tutelage of world-class coaches like Constantine in the ISL.

Constantine said on the LFL show, “I think you need the carrot and the stick here in India. The players are probably the most coachable players that I’ve worked with. The more you give them, the more they want. They are thirsty to improve and this is obviously easy if you’re a teacher, if you’re trying to teach them things, which is what we do, as coaches. Seven years working with Indian players from two different generations. It’s been really good and the response has been as it was in 2002 and 2015 and as it is now, it’s been great.”

Meanwhile, East Bengal FC registered their second win of the season after beating Bengaluru FC by 1-0. Constantine feels the support of the fans has been amazing for the club.

“I said a couple of weeks ago, wherever you go, there’s a Bengali in the building. It really is true. They have been tremendous so far. I need them to continue that through thick and thin. We are going to have moments where we are not as good as we want to be, but they have supported us so far. I understand everybody wants to win every game. Nobody more than me. But, we’ve got to try and keep it real. One step at a time, and we’ll get there. I promise them. We’ll get there”

On the other hand, Constantine also shed light on how young players are grabbing their opportunities with both hands.

“When I arrived, Lalchungnunga was one of the twelve guys that we found at the Maidan. I asked him What position do you play? I’m a right back, he said and I said ‘no, you’re not, you’re going to play center back. You’re not playing right back anymore okay(Laughs). I think he played one or two times for his club but he worked very, very hard and there is Tuhin Das, a local boy that I went to watch the reserve games with a couple of months ago, he’s my kind of player and now he is here. Himanshu Jangra, he’s another good possibility. There are one or two young kids in the team. They need time, the right type of training and the individual positional play that they need. So we will give them all the help we can and hopefully they will be successful for East Bengal.”

East Bengal FC will face Odisha FC on Friday at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata.