Kerala Santosh Trophy team coach Satheevan keen to know the quality of his strikers

Kerala, seven-time National champs, faces tough challenge in Santosh Trophy as heavy rain disrupts training. Coach Satheevan Balan is keen to know how effective his strikers are and is aware of the challenge posed by Goa, J&K and Gujarat. He hopes to qualify directly for the final phase in Arunachal Pradesh.

As Kerala’s Santosh Trophy probables worked on set pieces at the Calicut University Stadium at Thenipalam in Malappuram on Friday evening, head coach Satheevan Balan kept shouting out instructions. The coach and players appeared to be in a bit of a hurry.

A seven-time National champion, Kerala begins its Santosh Trophy campaign against Gujarat in Goa on October 11 but heavy rain has disrupted the team’s training. The camp for the probables began on September 15 and after two elimination rounds, rain has robbed the players of five days’ training.

“We were supposed to have a friendly (against Kerala Police) today but that has been cancelled. The ground is water-logged,” Satheevan told The Hindu on Saturday.

“If this is the condition, we may have to go to the Santosh Trophy without playing a single practice match.”

Just 12 players from last year’s Kerala team made it to the pruned list of 34 and more than half in the final 22-member team – likely to be announced on October 4 or 5 – are expected to make their National Championship debut. That is why Satheevan, who had coached Kerala to the Santosh Trophy victory in 2018, is keen that they play a few matches before the main event. Satheevan is also keen to know how effective his strikers are.

“The problem we often face is, we lack a sharp finisher. Even when I coached the 2018 side, I did not have a star striker, somebody we can confidently say that he would score goals,” said Satheevan.

“Now, we are trying to bring in midfielders and others to that position, try game plans and score goals. Mostly, midfielders and wingers are scoring. The two strikers we have now, E. Sajeesh (Kerala Police) and Muhammed Ashiq (who played the National Games), have height and look good in training but we will know for sure whether they can score only when they play matches.”