Mohun Bagan’s loss against Dempo has raised some eye brows – the team played well for first 40 mins – and could have been up 3-0, but lackluster attitude of the players stopped Bagan from getting early leads – and instead Bagan conceded two goals in last 5 mins of the first half. Added to it – Saha’s marching order and a brilliant long ranger from Franco added wows to Bagan. mohunbaganclub.com tries to review the pain points of the team.

One of the major factors of the current squad is injury. Key players suffering from injury include –

 

Arindam Bhattacharya, Echezona Anyichie, Khelemba Meetei, Syed Rahim Nabi, Manish Maithani and Tolgay Ozbey (this list is from the expected first XI) – so Bagan basically have a team where 6 of the key players are unavailable for duty.

Of the remaining players, only Odafa can create panic in opponent box. If we recall the Dempo game, we can recollect how Sabeeth or Lalrinfela missed opportunities. So, not only injury, but the inabilities of the players stopped Bagan from getting full points.

If we see how opponents are guarding Odafa and what others are doing, we can have a fair amount of idea of the problems the team is having.

 

If you take a note of the diagram – you will notice that there is a layer of defense around Odafa – and at least 5 players are guarding him. But Bagan is failing to take the advantage of this – as other players are still trying to shoulder off the responsibilities by just trying to pass the ball to Odafa in the penetrating zone. One does not know if this is because of the inabilities of the other players or instruction of the coach or lack of awareness of the position of the opponents that is stopping other players to move into the attacking third (thanks to the recruiters who let players like Sueoka or Deepak walk off from the team and substitute them with players like Stanley!)

Unless Bagan improve on this – we would continue to lose vital points and remain somewhere in the middle of the League table.

 

Odafa Okolie failed to score and as a result Mohun Bagan couldn’t register their win against weak ONGC in New Delhi. So, Bagan is now with 7 points from 5 matches. Nirmal and Shilton, the two Bagan boys have been booked. Mariners will play the next match against Salgaocar on 17th November, Saturday at home soil. After this match Bagan’s new coach Karim Bencharifa will join the team.

Skipper Odafa took the extra load to achieve a feat for himself and Mohun bagan. He scored 3 clean goals and missed at least 4 today. He created opportunities which were not been converted by Stanley , Maithani or Bhargav! Odafa was well supported by Nabi and Denson.

Odafa scored the first goal from a free kick from outside the box. The ball got into the far post – no body even moved and the ball kissed the net.

 

He then scored a ball when  Sporting defender failed to clear a ball and he pushed the ball into the net with three men on the goal line.

He scored the third when he got a Nabi through and placed the ball well.

 

Odafa not only scored goals, he was instrumental in coming down to Bagan box, snatch the ball and pass it to the players at the attacking third. In one such occasion Stanley messed up with the ball – and in a second situation Stanley failed to get past SCG defense.

Once Odafa’s pass to Bhargav on the right flank created panic in SCG defense – but Bhargav cross was finally foiled by them.

Once he placed the ball well for Maithani – but Maithani went towards the corner area making it difficult to score.

Odafa himself failed to score in 4 occasions as well.

Sporting scored from a Bagan good up on the right wing position. Barreto got past Shilton – the ball hit the post and went to the far end and Dawson had to place the ball inside the net. eche tried to save the ball but he himself was beyond the goal line and thus the goal was awarded for SCG.

Bagan’s weaknesses in this game :

a) Stanley really is holding the ball for long – as a result the opponents are getting advantage of Stanley

b) Saha overlapping – and that is leading to a hufe vaccum in the left back position. Even when there are set piece movements, this location is unguarded

c) Shilton is lacking confidence – he seems to be confused as whether to fist a ball or collect it.

d) Eche almost conceded a penalty in the first minute of the game – and he continues to fall on the ground in the cricial moments of the game. Bagan conceded a goal in the Lajong match from this mistake.

However nabi played really well – he was continuously chaning position and that helped Bagan a lot. even Nirmal and Aibor did well.