Vasco, Nov 23 (IANS): Owen Coyle starts life as the head coach of Jamshedpur FC with a game against his former side Chennaiyin in the 2020-21 Indian Super League (ISL) at the Tilak Maidan in Vasco, Goa, on Tuesday.
The two sides have met six times in the league with Chennaiyin winning twice, Jamshedpur coming out on top once and the rest ending in draws.
Jamshedpur will be captained by Peter Hartley and the English defender will have the likes of Stephen Eze and Narender Gahlot to partner him in the centre-back positions. Joyner Lourenco is another player that can be expected to feature in their backline from time to time while Laldinliana Renthlei and Ricky Lallawmawma will probably make the fullback slots their own.
They also boast a strong midfield with Aitor Monroy and Amarjit Singh slated to play integral roles at the centre. Alexander Lima, who has played under Coyle earlier and Mohammad Mobashir, who was amongst the goals in pre-season, will have big responsibilities to carry out for the team as well.
New signing Jackichand Singh will also be hoping to hit the ground running while their frontmen Valskis and David Grande will eye opening their account for the campaign in their season opener.
Chennaiyin will have Csaba Laszlo as their head coach and Rafael Crivellaro as their captain this season. Enes Sipovic is mostly likely to partner Eli Sabia in defence and the fullback positions will probably be occupied by Reagan Singh and Jerry Lalrinzuala.
Chennaiyin are spoilt for choice in the midfield. Crivellaro and Anirudh Thapa should be guaranteed starters, while Lallianzuala Chhangte -- the highest-scoring Indian midfielder last season -- will be hoping for another solid campaign this time around.
Thoi Singh, Dhanpal Ganesh, Edwin Vanspaul, Memo Moura, Germanpreet Singh, and Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev all make up the rest of the options Chennaiyin have in midfield. Up front, Jakub Sylvestr will need to carry the burden of replacing Nerijus Valskis as Chennaiyin's leading scorer from last season and he will be hoping for some support from Esmael Goncalves.