Stimac: Boys must learn to play, score without Chhetri

India captain Sunil Chhetri (left) with teammate Sandesh Jhinghan during a training session in Kolkata recently. Pic/PTI

Indian football team head coach Igor Stimac wants his attacking players to start learning to play without talisman Sunil Chhetri, and score some goals too.

At 37, Chhetri is at the fag end of his career, but India still needed him to score the two goals and start their Asian Cup Qualifiers campaign with a win over Cambodia here on Wednesday.

Stimac said it's high time that players such as Udanta Singh, Manvir Singh, Ashique Kuruniyan, Sahal Abdul Samad and Liston Colaco start scoring. "It's again Sunil. Others tried to get it, but not finding a way. So, I expect goals from Liston, Manvir, Udanta, Aashique, Sahal.

They all need to start scoring. We need to start learning. The boys need to start learning to play without Sunil, simple as that," Stimac said after the match.

The Croatian World Cup semifinalist said Udanta and Ashique are the team's two main weapons up front.

"I don't mind how bad they play in the club. I need them here to use the speed they have to hurt the opponents who are stronger because we don't have a big pool of players to choose from," he added.

Indian captain Chhetri said their attacking force could have done better in the win over lowly Cambodia.

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On an evening of missed chances, Chhetri again rose to the occasion slamming home a brace to be the architect of their win, which put them ahead of Hong Kong, on goal difference, in group D.

"It feels good, I'm more happy as we ensured a clean sheet. There are a lot of things that we could have done better. I'm not trying to be harsh but there are a lot of things we could have done better," Chhetri told reporters at the mixed zone.

Chhetri drew first blood by converting a penalty in the 14th minute after Colaco was tripped inside the box.

Thereafter, India struggled with finishing even though they dominated possession.

Chhetri himself missed a couple of headers before sealing it off a delightful cross from Brandon Fernandes.

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