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Striking concerns, defensive woes

Sports Reporter
Football
A flurry of mistakes from defenders in yesterday's practice match against Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club added new worries for the national football team ahead of their two exhibition matches against Nepal this month.
The national team went down by 1-3 goals at the hands of the former professional league champions, thanks to one goal each from Sunday Chizoba, Mike Otojareri and Chinedu Ezimorah. All three goals resulted from lapses in defence. The national team however pulled one goal back through Zahid Hasan Emily in the 45th minute.
With Ariful Islam ruled out due to a knee injury, the stopper position proved to be the main concern for coach Shaiful Bari Titu as he tried Rezaul Karim alongside veteran
Mohammad Sujan. But Reza proved ill-equipped for the job as he brought down Arup Kumar Baddya inside the penalty area after being beaten for pace. Linkon, playing in place of injured right-back Nasirul Islam, allowed Otojareri ample space to head home a cross. The third goal resulted from miscommunication in defence as Ezimorah was left unmarked while scoring with a header.
Coach Saiful Bari however was unwilling to read too much into the result, instead blaming fatigue for the defeat.
“I don't want to take this result too seriously as I experimented with things I taughtthem in practice sessions and played two sets of squads in different formations to ascertain the best-suited formation,” said Titu. “The players were tired after having two sessions of practice each in the last three days.”
Bangladesh had always taken pride in the quality of its stoppers such as Monem Munna, Kaiser Hamid, Rajani Kanta Barman, Jewel Rana but the position has of late turned into a vulnerable one and Titu feels players like Sujan, Ariful, Reza and Mamun Mia are irreplaceable.
However, former skipper Rajani Kanta Barman who watched the practice match, feels there are other quality stoppers apart from them but some hooters get favour from the local coaches.
“There are only three players in the central defending position at the moment, so there is no competition among them for the starting eleven. In the match, all three goals
were conceded due to mistakes of the defenders, who didn’t even mark the forwards,” observed Rajani.
The striking zone too remains a concern for the coach as Zahid Hasan Emily, Mithun Chowdhury and fit-again Enamul Haque clearly lacked the sharpness and posed little threat to the opposition backline.
The margin could have been bigger had Sheikh Jamal president Manjur Kader not asked his side to adopt a softer approach in the second half in a bid to avoid injuries to the national players ahead of the exhibition matches to be held on September 18 and 20 in Nepal.