The Men behind Hyderabad FC's rise

A THREAD

As FC Pune City folded up in 2019, the rights for the tenth franchise in the @IndSuperLeague was sold to Telengana businessman Vijay Madduri and former Kerala Blasters CEO Varun Tripuraneni.

@HydFCOfficial formed a team out of most of the Pune City players and even hired their coach Phil Brown. Their debut season did not go according to plans and they finished bottom of the table having conceded the most goals in the league.

This season, they have turned the tables around and as of writing, they lie 4th on the table, looking to bag a spot in the ISL qualifiers. Their success lies on a core of young Indian footballers complemented by some solid foreign signings.

Much of Hyderabad FC’s planning for this season started well before the conclusion of the previous one. In the winter transfer window of 2020, the club signed Liston Colaco and Hitesh Sharma who have been two of the more important players this season.

It was during this period that former Bengaluru FC coach Albert Roca was announced as the head coach for the next season.

The first thing Roca did at Hyderabad FC was to reduce the average age of the squad. The new look squad is the second youngest squad in the ISL.

Roca had a huge hand with most of the squad building for the season. But in the summer of 2020, Roca accepted an offer from @FCBarcelona to join Ronald Koeman’s support staff.

Hyderabad FC soon appointed Manuel Marquez as their new manager and since then the club has not looked back. Marquez had previous working experience with top flight clubs in Spain and Croatia.

(All the viz and radars we have created for this thread have data accurate till Gameweek 12 and the other stats we are going to use further in the captions are accurate till 4th February 2021)

The emphasis on youth is quite clear. All of the Indian players who have played most of the current season barring goalkeeper Subrata Paul (now at @sc_eastbengal) are of 26 years or less in age. The right-back Akash Mishra who is only 19, has played the most minutes this season.

No other club in the current top 6 of the ISL has put more emphasis on youth than Hyderabad FC. Their 48% share of playing time by U-25 footballers is only bettered by @OdishaFC.

Mishra in fact has been one of the revelations of this season. Defensively, he is making 4.6 interceptions per 90 and winning 7.72 defensive duels per 90 at a success rate of 65.8%. Going forward, he is making 8.03 progressive passes and 5.52 passes into the final third per game

Hyderabad FC’s other full-back, Asish Rai has been even more impressive. Rai is leading the charts for defenders in winning defensive duels (8.75 per 90 minutes), progressive passes (10 per 90 minutes), and dribbles (4.44 per 90 minutes).

On ISL’s official website, Rai has the third highest player rating for a defender behind Mumbai City FC’s Mourtada Fall and Jamshedpur FC’s Stephen Eze.

Although both Mishra and Rai like going forward, Marquez likes to employs a cautious approach and keeps one of them back in the defensive third, forming a three-man wall as the other moves forward.

In the middle of defence, Odei Onaindia and Chinglensana Singh have formed a solid partnership. Onaindia is especially good at winning defensive duels having won 69% and this is important considering Chinglensana excels at ball progression by making runs upfield.

In these circumstances, midfielder Joao Victor occupies the centre back slot vacated by Chinglensana Singh. Victor has a 71% success rate in winning aerial duels (2nd highest in the league) and also makes 5.23 interceptions per 90 minutes.

@SofaScoreINT tells us that Victor makes 15.8 passes in the opposition half at 80% success and 3.3 accurate long balls at 71% accuracy per game. Victor likes moving around in the midfield 3rd, facilitates others like Liston Colaco, Hitesh Sharma, Md. Yasir and Halicharan Narzary

In the below move, striker Aridane Santana has moved out of his position to occupy the position generally held by an RB, inviting his CMs to make the run into the penalty area. Santana and Victor catch out the opposition defs ball watching and nearly scored from the move.

The runs from CM are quite common in the @HydFCOfficial setup and it is the striker Aridane Santana who makes everything tick. Aridane is one of the most prolific strikers in the league, having scored 9 goals in 14 games last time around. (1/3)

He is good in the box, competing in 10.3 aerial duels per 90 and has also made the most expected goal contributions in the league this season. Inspite of this prowess as a striker in the box, Aridane is very selfless in stretching opposition defenders out of their position (2/3)

This is further reflected in his heatmap. It is this selfless nature of his that might have prompted the management to hand over the armband to him at the start of this season.

Credit: @SofaScoreINT

Md. Yasir after starting in only 10 games last season, has already notched up 11 starts this time around. His importance to this lineup is reflected on his radar. Yasir generally picks up the ball from Victor in midfield and progresses the ball into the attacking third.

The standout performer among all the Hyderabad FC players have been Liston Colaco. His dribbling ability is one of the best in the league, taking part in 6.54 dribbles per game with a success rate of 63%. This coupled with 1.26 smart passes per 90 has earned him 3 assists.

The cherry on the cake is this dribble that made a fool out of SC East Bengal’s Scott Neville before Halicharan Narzary slotted it home.

Hyderabad FC’s current model is sure to benefit Indian football in the long run. As India goes forward in its aim to make it big in Asian football, the likes of Colaco, Hitesh Sharma, Md. Yasir, Akash Mishra, and Asish Rai will be a huge component of it provided they keep up.

End of the thread.