Anirban

Floccinaucinihilipilification

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

It's time to stop wasting time in #indianfootball , especially grassroots #coaching .
Quitting!!

After Coaching for 6.5 years every week, building grassroots teams from scratch, 11 played nationals, it kills me to see people who sit through courses get a pass.

1/n

[Fede’s intern 🥊 @fede_intern]

this a lazy argument: possession is virtuous, attacking is brave, and defending is a confession of inferiority. a team defending like Paraguay playing defense is seen as not deserve to win a match. they parked the bus. they played anti-football. this is nonsense.

every tactic is a rational answer to a problem, not a moral position. the problem is your players, the opponent, the score, the stakes. a team doesn't defend deep because it lacks ambition. it defends deep because it has correctly read its situation and found the plan most likely to win. Paraguay's problem was simple: how do you compete against France that has better players? playing open would mean competing on exactly the terms where you're weakest, inviting a superior team onto the ball and into space. that is stupid. the intelligent answer is to compress the space, stay compact, defend as a unit, and threaten in transition. asking them to "play more football" confuses a stylistic preference with a principle.

defending well is genuinely hard. keeping eleven players organised for ninety plus minutes, holding lines, shifting as a block hundreds of times, resisting the urge to break shape, staying concentrated deep into stoppage time when one lapse ends the match, then countering with precision because you won't get many chances. most teams can't do it. watch how many sides try to hold a block and fail because their shape cracks or their focus slips. the defensive masterclass looks passive precisely because its excellence is invisible.

since guardiola, elite football has converged on one template: the passing monoculture. possession as a first principle, patient build up, endless circulation until a gap appears. in the right hands it's magnificent and it wins everything. but it has hardened into dogma, and dogmas are always a weakness. teams have adopt it because it's fashionable, because dominating the ball looks like the mark of a serious modern side. i believe nowadays this is the actual mono tactic, not the defensive block, which varies with every opponent.

68% possession, six hundred passes, sideways and backwards and sideways again, and nothing at the end. possession without penetration is decoration. control mistaken for threat. a team can dominate every meaningless statistic on the broadcast and create less than the side sitting behind the ball, because the counter attacking side has a plan to hurt you and the possession side has a plan to hold you, and then hopes.

the deep defensive team made an honest assessment of its limits and built a plan to win from within them. the team recycling possession for its own sake is often doing the opposite, avoiding risk, keeping the ball to keep it from the opponent, prioritizing not losing over winning, and calling it a philosophy. sterile possession is risk aversion in a nicer suit. it's beatable in an entirely predictable way. a disciplined low block plus a fast transition is the classic antidote. it works so reliably that "inferior" teams knock out possession sides every season. if your grand philosophy is routinely undone by a well drilled underdog, perhaps it isn't the underdog who should be embarrassed.

futbol's greatest eras were defined by variety, not conformity. catenaccio, total football, direct play, gegenpressing, deep block counter attacking. each an answer to a real problem, and the friction between them is what made the sport interesting. when one style becomes the default and everything else gets branded negative or anti football, the game gets narrower and more boring. the most intelligent team isn't the one running the same passing pattern regardless of the opponent or whether it's even working. it's the one that can defend, transition, control when it should, and change its approach to fit the problem in front of it. adaptability is the mark of quality.

so put the hierarchy back where it belongs. deserving to win is decided by the result and the rules, not the aesthetics of how you got there. you can find a match hard to watch or enjoy, that's a fair preference, but disliking the spectacle is not a verdict on the tactics. paraguay's plan was legitimate, difficult, and superbly executed. it doesn't mean they should deserve to lose. they solved the problem they were given and beat teams that couldn't solve theirs. the monoculture of passing for its own sake, risk dressed as ambition, deserves far more of the criticism it rarely gets. defending isn't the sport's embarrassment. thoughtless possession is.

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

A Delhi Referee is officiating the relegation decider for Sribhumi against EB while another Delhi side is in a parallel match to save relegation.

That was not a penalty.....

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

@Nher_who This was announced in the morning by the University. Aap chronology samjhiye 👇😆

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

#IWL 2nd round starts on 27th with the pending match from Round 1.

Will be interesting to see how the teams respond after a long break and extreme heat

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

This is how State Leagues should function. Clear notice, clear expectations. Open to NGO's as well.

Cut to Delhi. Only Member clubs gets the Notice. To be a member club without voting rights, affiliation fee is 25 Lacs.

To be an affiliate academy pay 20-25 K/ year. 😒😠

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

One thing which AIFF has done successfully over the years is to scout fluent English speaking South Delhi elites for the Presser and PR irrespective of sporting/ performance merit. The 3rd generation is here.😆

[Indian Football @IndianFootball]

“We’ll take feedback and do better in the next one.”

🇮🇳 #BlueTigresses midfielder Aveka Singh after the game against Kenya 🎙️

Full press conference 🔗 https://t.co/M3CXm3nYpL

🎥 @Football_Kenya

#KENIND #IndianFootball #FIFASeries

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

@panenka_goal Malpractices are gender neutral. Our "systems" ensure equality & neutrality in that aspect

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

@alnshbdr @d_subrataCE OFCW team is outsourced to a Mumbai club. Crispin's Coaching is not game centric, results are not in his favour & selections smell of lobbies gaining upper hand. AIFF wants a YES man. The major beneficiaries of this are clubs with big academy setups by pushing avg players in NT

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

@panenka_goal @indiafemmefooty For Age groups as well, maybe the same fate follows post respective Asian Cups'. Lobbying gets difficult under foreign coaches Especially when they are old in the system. With indian coaches, clubs with academies & residential setup have stronger dictat & lobby in pushing players

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

#indianfootball nowadays based on "Handlers". Tournaments (not league!) are projects & Squads are assembled based on the exchequer.
Players enjoy flights & hotels, status & reels. Build "network" aka lobbies. Little training/ learning. Mostly matches.
Nurturing is a big word....

[Sambit Upadhyay @SambitUpadhyay]

Instead of building, nurturing, and promoting footballers from Odisha, we now see a Maharashtra-based squad, along with their coach, simply rebranded to play under the name @OdishaFCW.

This is not just disappointing. It’s unacceptable.

(1/3)

[Odisha FCW, IWL2, Indian Football]

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

It's a mirage, simply not worth chasing the goals of excellence in this country.
After spending 12 years everyday in grassroots can say we shall look for better things to do with our lives.
No one gives a damn, beyond a point not even the players themselves.

[Arka @ArkaTweets1]

This is the reality.

As India faced Japan yesterday, I was watching my own team face another on the ground and I was wondering how we were going to survive the next financial year.

Last 3 months have been like that. 200 unanswered mails because CSR starts and ends on LinkedIn.

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

For all those surprised at #INDvJPN score has never watched #IWL , #IWL2, State Leagues, leave aside age group/ grassroots football. With 2 week IWL2, 3 month IWL, 6 match State Leagues,mostly unprofessional players,agent driven squads, egoistic coaches,we deserve that scoreline.

[Indian Football @IndianFootball]

Defeat against Japan in our second game of #WAC2026. There will still be all to play for in the last group stage match against Chinese Taipei on Tuesday.

#BlueTigresses #INDvJPN #AsiaDream

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

@rIndianFootball Why don't you guys file it and make the answer public. The world is not short of ideas but implementation.

Saying this bcoz real activism comes with real consequences.

P.S. Have filed RTI's in the past with State FA's and got no response as presumably they are not under RTI😒

[Bene Schneiderbauer @BeneSB_]

For a long time, I had the (implicit) idea that possession football means to “keep the ball”. And when you do that, players will have the ball more often and will naturally create more chances. Which was not the case. It led to:

- (Boring) side to side passing (because it is the safer option to pass back or horizontal than passing forward. Why should I risk passing forward, when the goal is to keep the ball?).

- Conflicts: "We want to keep the ball, but the way to the goal is open" --> Conflict destroys the flow, which then looks robotic.

Switching the overall intention to “possession so we can get to the opposing goal in a more controlled way” (‘vertical possession’), made all the difference. When you get the overall intention right, suddenly all the other things get better naturally. Passes get more precise. Fewer miscommunications. Better decisions. More creative actions. And, of course, more goals.

A subtle difference, but it makes all the difference.

[Spielverlagerung.de @Spielvrlagerung]

Essay: Escape

A few thoughts and reflections on the analysis bubble.

"My concern is less about what is objectively right or wrong in football, and more about how we, as analysts and coaches, sometimes present our ideas as universal truths."

https://t.co/jS388upxHS

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

Must read
Football feels Joyless now due to this same old Race and Missing out mindset

We have to be mindful of the collateral damage it has on kids who pick up the game out of our Joy & Love for PLAY

[Jamie Hamilton @stirling_j]

🚨 NEW ARTICLE

CRASH
Why The Race For Fast Decision-Making Is Breaking Football

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

I totally agree with Joshua here but the challenge to access is not ability but politics in State FA & lobbying culture between State & AIFF

Otherwise Delhi's two time top scorer would have got a trial call up atleast instead of random names from specific clubs
#IndianFootball

[The Bridge Football @bridge_football]

🗨️"There is far more talent in the country than what we are currently able to access"

Indian Women’s Futsal coach Joshuah Vaz outlines his journey from player to elite instructor, and highlights structural gaps in the women’s game.

#IndianFootball ⚽️

https://t.co/Hf3uB6Quvm

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

@JAdairSoccer [email protected]

Thanks so much👍

[Indian Football Updates @IndianFootyBest]

🇮🇳 🇩🇪 | Germany's @BMW invests in Indian Women's Football.

In partnership with @TOKKMF, the initiative provided educational support and footy training to many underprivileged girls - with 8 of them earning contracts in IWL and pro state leagues!

PROUD MOMENT #IndianFootball 👏

[Anirban @dlast1_standing]

Thread 🧵 coming soon
From random selection to sub par performance

Jingoism can't overshadow the lack of depth or bias in #IndianFootball Women's Futsal

[Indian Football @IndianFootball]

Full time in Nonthaburi.

#BHUIND #FutsalTigresses #FutsalSAFF2026