Damage Control | Mohun Bagan vs. North East United FC ISL 24/25 Preview

byRitam Chakraborty -

Damage Control | Mohun Bagan vs. North East United FC ISL 24/25 Preview

Mohun Bagan Dimi Petratos Jose Moline North East Parthib Gogoi Juan Pedro Benali


The VYBK kept hoping for a dramatic miracle with Captain Subhashis Bose taking a run up for his decisive penalty. It had happened before. Mohunbagan has shown they are capable of making impossible comebacks, the players boast of a never-say-die attitude, and what better motivation is there when you play for the biggest club in India whose fans never stops cheering and believing even when everything seems over. Everything seemed like a movie script. Alas, if only life was one.

With the captain missing the penalty, curtains came down, the theatre slammed shut as the fans hearts broke into pieces. The following results did not encourage the fans either with two very hard fought draw against Mumbai City FC and Tajik side Ravshan Kulob in the inaugural AFC Champions League 2 Group Stage opener.

From outside it might seem that the results were okay, but not when you account for the fact that both of the games were home games with a clear 2-0 advantage in one. Even the other game could have won if not for some pretty poor finishing especially from the stalwarts Cummings, Liston and Petratos. Some may say that the angle deceived Liston, still when you look at the goal Nihal Sudeesh scored against Odisha the other night, it is only fair to expect much better.

While the gritty highlanders, fresh from their maiden trophy win, locked horns against a newly promoted Mohammedan sporting side, who gave them a tough fight indeed but a defensive lapse allowed the Guwahati based side to prevail and win the match in the last minute.

As for the players to watch, I will not make much changes from the last game, I still think Ajeraie, the sole goalscorer for the highlanders against Mohammedan and Jithin MS will be the players to watch, but I will add Guillermo here aswell.

Who is he? Well we might be familiar with his ball striking after his goal in the Durand final, but he has much more to his resume. I am sure some people might be aware of his brace against Real Madrid for Numancia in Copa del Rey, well those are not his only goals against the Los Blancos.

Only a few people knows that he has 6 goals against the giants from the Spanish capital for Numancia, Athletic club and Elche, while also scoring two goals against Barcelona with Gimnastic once. He possesses all what a target man needs, ball holding capability, strength and ball carrying and boasts of a very refined ball striking, so we need to be wary of him.

Mohun Bagan's Situation

As I might have elaborated the opposition’s tactics before Durand final, I will just go through their last game, but first it will be prudent to just give a summary of the current situation of Mohunbagan, especially with the situation some of the players.

With Anwar permanently off to the arch-rivals, the club badly needed an Indian defender, with Pritam in advanced talks, it seemed like Mohunbagan will get their preferred target but the deal couldn’t materialize. This made Molina (who has a great reputation of grooming young talents) trust Dippendu into the lineup, even in a stage like the AFC Champions League 2.

Even though the local lad, who was spotted on a train chanting for Bagan travelling to the VYBK for the 2023 Durand Cup final which Bagan won, to getting his senior team debut under Antonio Lopez Habas at the start of the second half against Hyderabad FC on 14th Feb, 2024, was a bit nervous towards the beginning of the match against Ravshan, he grew into the game and played a magnificent ninety minutes, and it should be expected that he will slowly prove himself as a big breakthrough prospect as the situation progresses.

With Mclaren fit, Cummings will have to sweat over his spot aswell. Cumdog had a great Durand Cup but has failed to show his worth in the two games of the regular season, especially with the misses and failed plays against Ravshan.

Even Petratos seems like he has not achieved full fitness, although it is a common pattern we have seen by now where Petratos starts slow and becomes more lethal as the season progress, thus the impatient fans on Twitter need to calm down a bit, atleast with Dimi-God.

After the Ravshan game, it is also proved how important Stewart is to our system, as the pace of the play improved only after he has entered. The progression ability he offers is very unique in the team and in my opinion he is one of the only players to have the capability to change the game on its head when the team will require. 

And as for Aldred, as of now he has proved to be a solid signing and will have to fill the place of Alberto until the latter is fully fit. few players like Sahal and Apuia might need to improve a bit and for them judgement is reserved until a few more games.

How will NorthEast Play?

Courtesy: ISL on JioCinema
Courtesy: ISL on JioCinema

The Highlanders' game with MDSP revealed some more high pressing attitudes of their players which we might need to be wary of. I might have explained how they compromise spaces in the centre for wide man marking when I analysed their game against Shillong Lajong, but there is another facet to that.

The opponents need to find the space in the centre-which they wouldn’t leave that easily. The picture suggests that the only options the MDSP player had at that moment was either pass back or go long as all the surrounding zones and players are occupied. If this situation arises, the best thing our players can do is to switch the flanks. If they over-commit in one area, they will leave spaces in the other.

Courtesy: ISL on JioCinema
Courtesy: ISL on JioCinema

This still image is the moment before their goal. And even though it does not reveal any consistent pattern of play that we should be wary of, but we must make sure not to allow them to play through the centre, especially in the dying moments. They possess a very good hold up play striker and may wreck havoc in aerial balls, so Aldred will have to sweep and head away all those dangerous areal balls coming his way.

With the season already started in full steam and players having got enough match and training practice, it will be prudent for the team to start showing what they are capable of and start winning games by playing a good brand of football to silence the constructive criticism coming their way. 

It will also be interesting to see how Jose Molina responds to his critics otherwise it is very possible that his seat will start heating up soon. With Mohunbagan  fans vocal about the brand of football played and the amount of goals being conceded, especially late in the game, keeping focus on the upcoming goals and working hard to achieve that will become very very important at this stage of the season, and it is the job of the players to ensure that.

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