ISL 2023-24: The secret to Mumbai City coach Des Buckingham's success with young talent

One of the first questions English coach Des Buckingham faced upon being appointed by Mumbai City FC in 2021 was about his ambitions for the club which share the same owners as Premier League champions Manchester City. The Islanders had won the Indian Super League (ISL) trophy and the League Winner’s Shield in the 2020-21 season and when you are at a club that is owned by Abu Dhabi’s City Football Group, trophies are what you aim for even in your dream. Buckingham promised the same, but his team finished fifth in the ISL table in 2021-22, missing out on the playoffs. Fast forward to the 2023-24 season, and Mumbai are once again the dominant force they were two years ago. In the 2022-23 season, Mumbai won the League Winner’s Shield in a historic fashion; setting the record for winning the title in the quickest time, scoring an ISL record 54 goals and garnering 46 points — the most for an ISL side in the league stage. As Buckingham went on to transform Mumbai’s fortunes and strengths, he also helped some of the young Indian footballers play their best football, who in return became the mainstay of the League Shield winners. Goalkeeper Phurba Lachenpa (25), centre-back Mehtab Singh (25), and midfielder Lalengmawia ‘Apuia’ Ralte (22) have all played their best football so far under Buckingham, hugely benefiting the Indian national team as well.

📽️ Des and Mehtab put their precision skill to the test 🎯⚽🥅#MumbaiCity #AamchiCity 🔵 pic.twitter.com/7iXrLamBHL

— Mumbai City FC (@MumbaiCityFC) September 6, 2023

The transformation of Lallianzuala Chhangte (26) from a speedy winger to a goal machine takes the cake, however. The former Chennaiyin FC attacker scored 10 goals and made six assists last season, a heavy jump from one goal and one assist in the previous season. Mumbai have snapped up India’s No 1 left-back Aakash Mishra (21), Seilenthang Lotjem, Franklin Robin Nazareth, Nathan Asher Rodrigues, all 19, ahead of the 2023-24 season, and also have young attacking talents like Gurkirat Singh (20) and Vikram Partap  Singh (21) in the squad. These players would be looking to improve their game under Buckingham’s guidance who has experience doing the same with New Zealand U20 and U23 sides. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Buckingham explained his process of dealing with young players and helping them reach their potential. The 38-year-old Englishman who is in his 22nd year of coaching also spoke about the upcoming ISL 2023-24 season and reflected on his squad’s strengths. Excerpts from the interview Q: You helped Chhangte reach a higher level and now Aakash has joined Mumbai. What’s your approach towards young Indian players and what goes into helping youngsters make the jump? Buckingham: There are two players who jumped to my mind as soon as you mentioned Chhangte and Aaaksh. Obviously, Chhangte has done very well in the last 12 months and he reminds me very much of Sarpreet Singh who was at Wellington (Phoenix) with me and we took him to the World Cup. I gave him his professional debut and he later went on to sign for Bayern Munich. Other at left back very similar to Akash Mishra, there’s a player called Liberato Cacace who worked with me at Wellington, came with me to the World Cup, and now plays for Empoli in Serie A. So, I have a lot of history of working with young players and hopefully have been a part of their development. When they are in here. It’s about working with them, making them aware of how we play and how they can contribute to that. It’s about working on the areas that we both feel that they need to work on to progress their career not just the club but hopefully beyond and then it’s about sitting and spending time — tracking, monitoring, and reviewing with them. And we do that on a weekly basis with each of the players we have here. We link that to training, to games, and the work they are doing in the gym. It’s not just a standalone football individual profile or programme. It’s heavily linked across the multiple platforms that we have here to bring all of this together to try and enhance and give this player the best opportunity to be as good as they can. The simple answer is to have a conversation with the player, spend time with them make it very clear how we play and how they fit within that, and then trust them. Young players you know Gurkirat when he was 18 when he got here or Aakash who is 21, if you can create a positive environment, allow them to feel at ease to showcase what they can do and you trust them to do that whether in ISL or Champions League and if you can remain consistent to all of that it gives a player the best platform to then go on and show what they can do. We have had many successes on that front in the last 10 years.

Honoring the mentors who inspire the champions of #MumbaiCity 🩵#TeachersDay #AamchiCity 🔵 pic.twitter.com/XNo7c35iuD

— Mumbai City FC (@MumbaiCityFC) September 5, 2023

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Q: Mumbai have lost big names like Mourtada Fall and Ahmed Jahoru. You guys have signed Tiri and midfielder Yoell van Nieff. With a big season coming up which also has a Champions League game for you, what do you make of your squad? Buckingham: Change is inevitable in football and in life. It’s very rare you see a full squad being maintained from season to season but we are very happy that we have probably 90 per cent of the same squad that we had here. Not just last season but the season before that. I was asked the other day if it’s a new season to me and I said no it’s a continuation of what we had over the last two seasons. Very happy to maintain that core group of players and the re-signings have gone under the radar but the re-signings are as good as new signings for us. It puts us in a good place to hopefully start from where we left off. We have brought in Tiri and Van Nieff and we hope they will bring something different and something we can build on the really good work (Mourtada) Fall and (Ahmed) Jahouh did for us. Q: Mumbai have a solid squad but other teams including Mohun Bagan Super Giant and Odisha FC have invested a lot of money. Everyone thinks ISL 2023-24 will be the most competitive season of all. What’s your take on that? Buckingham: People say this is going to be the most competitive season. This is my third season and I haven’t seen anyone say the last two seasons weren’t competitive because they were. You look at the quality of players and coaches who have been in the league. I understand the excitement around some of the people returning to the league, I get that, but you look at the clubs and progress that has been made by every club including ourselves going into season 10 from maybe where we were 3-4 years ago, that’s the most exciting thing for me. For every season there will be additional challenges and that’s the way I look at it regardless of players and coaches signed elsewhere. It’s good for Indian football but I don’t pay too much attention. We spend a lot of time becoming as good as we can be. Other teams will do what they want to do. Our challenge here is twofold — to try and challenge and be as successful as we can be year upon year and not just for one season and to do that we have got a very clear plan on how we want to develop players and how we want to play. A lot of our time and attention goes into trying to make sure that we can do that. Whether it’s in the ISL, Durand Cup, or the exciting ACL games that we have coming up.