Former two-time champions of the Indian Super League, Chennaiyin FC had a disappointing campaign, with a series of poor results seeing them finish in the eighth spot for the second time in a row.

 Former two-time champions of the Indian Super League, Chennaiyin FC had a disappointing campaign, with a series of poor results seeing them finish in the eighth spot for the second time in a row. 

Following a below-par 20-21 season, the Chennai-based outfit appointed Božidar Bandović as the new head coach replacing Csaba Laszlo. The former Buriram United coach came with a lot of Asian experience under his belt with winning the Thai Premier League in back-to-back seasons also bagging the Thai Premier League Coach of The Year in 2018. 

The 2021-22 season saw a bunch of departures and incomings for the southern side, with most of the foreign contingent either moving away from the leagues or to other respective teams in the league. one of their longest servants Eli Sabia moved to Jamshedpur FC and his fellow pair the back Enes Sipović moved to the southside Kerala Blasters, while they retained the services of Rafael Crivellaro, they also bought in reinforcements in the form of Slavko Damjanovic, Lukasz Gikiewicz, Mirlan Murzaev, Vladimir Koman, Ariel Borysiuk to their ranks. They also brought in a few Indian names to their ranks namely, Jobby Justin and Salam Ranjan Sing from ATK Mohun Bagan, Ninthoi Meetei from Northeast United, and Debjit Majumder from East Bengal and a few others too. 

 The season started well for them with two wins in the first two games, they looked defensively solid and showcased some good attacking movements with Thapa, ariel, and Koman bossing the midfield and Slavko Damjanovic being solid as a rock in the defense. But their real troubles began when they faced Kerala Blasters in their seventh game on 22nd December, their defense which only conceded four goals in six previous games conceded as many as three goals in a single match against the Blasters. From hereon they lost their rhythm and way of playing, with experienced players like Vishal Kaith underperforming in most of the matches led the coach to try out the new arrival Debjith on goal. even though Debjith showed great composure on goal than Kaith, he was weak aerially with a considerable amount of goals coming in the for the team in blue for goalkeeping mistakes. when coming into midfield, the absence of Crivellaro really affected them with lack of creativity, Koman was outstanding in most of the matches with Thapa keeping his class as always and ariel doing his work mostly clean. their main problems were in the striking department, they even bought in their former talisman and fan-favorite valskis to further strengthen and to bag in more goals but the story remained the same for the marina machans. 

 

                                                                            After a string of poor results, they decided to part ways with the head coach Božidar Bandović after the sixteenth game of the season where they were humiliated by FC Goa who were just a mere shadow of themselves compared to the previous seasons. After parting ways with Božidar Bandović one of the owners was quoted saying "Over the years, we’ve lost and won. But as a club, losing like this is something we cannot stand by and watch". 

After Božidar Bandović's departure assistant coach Sabir Pasha was given the managerial duties for the rest of the season, but couldn't do much to an already disappointing season. 

SEASON STATS: 

MATCHES PLAYED:20  

WINS:5  

LOSSES:10  

DRAWS:5 

 

TOTAL GOALS:17 

AVERAGE GOALS:0.85 

GOALS CONCEDED: 35 

AVERAGE GOALS CONCEDED:1.75 

GOAL DIFFERENCE:-18 

LEFT FOOT:2 

RIGHT FOOT:11 

HEADER:3 

OWN GOAL:1  

PENALTIES:1