ISL 2021-22: Chennaiyin FC team preview

The 2021 ISL season is about to begin, and the proceedings start on November 19. As part of the buildup to the new season, we take a look at all the teams in the league. In this article, we close up on Chennaiyin FC and their team profile. 

Chennaiyin FC Tentative Squad 

Goalkeepers: Vishal Kaith, Samik Mitra, Debjit Majumder, Devansh Dabas.

Defenders: Reagan Singh, Salam Ranjan Singh, Edwin Sydney Vanspaul, Jerry Lalrinzuala, Narayan Das, Deepak Devrani, Davinder Singh, Slavko Damjanovic, Balaji Ganesan.

Midfielders: Ninthoi Meetei, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Rafael Crivellaro (C), Ariel Borysiuk, Anirudh Thapa, Germanpreet Singh, Aman Chetri, Melroy Assisi, Subhadip Majhi.

Forwards: Johnson Mathews, Rahim Ali, Jobby Justin, Mirlan Murzaev, Suhail Pasha, Vladimir Koman, Lukasz Gikiewicz 

Chennaiyin FC Team Profile 

With only three wins last season, Chennaiyin finished eighth in the table. The season was quite underwhelming for the two-time ISL winners. Following their performance last year, Csaba Laszlo was sacked. Chennaiyin FC have now signed Bozidar Bandovic as the new head coach of the team. 

They managed to retain the services of Rafael Crivellaro over the summer, and have also signed a number of new players such as Narayan Das and Debit Majumdar. The midfield will be Chennaiyin’s biggest strength, with names like Anirudh Thapa, Vladimir Koman and Ariel Borysiuk. 

Attackers Lukasz Gikiewicz and Mirlan Murzaev will also provide a huge benefit to the forward line of the team. Their weakness lies on the opposite side of the pitch, with Slavko Damjanovic the only overseas centre-back. 

The other Indian defenders will have to step up their confidence on the ball to ensure that they reduce errors as much as possible. Chennaiyin start their campaign against Hyderabad FC on November 23.