Rajat Subhra Chatterjee
0043
Since 1889, during last 133 years of its inception and glorious existence, Mohun Bagan has not won all its matches. Rather defeats, ignominious defeats have been tasted by the club over the years. Yet, the officials, members, supporters all over the world have taken everything by their strides and regrouped the team years after years and the club administration did their best for this club. Thus we had seen emergence and retirement of so many stalwarts from this club – both as players and as administrators.
This writer have been watching MB playing since 1958 and naturally have seen the best years of the club – in football, cricket and hockey. While we had enjoyed Chuni, Jarnail, Subrata, Cheema, Sunil Chetri, Omollo, Norde, Krishna, we had enjoyed P. B. Dutta, Shyamsunder Mitra, Prakash Poddar, Deb Mukherjee, Ramesh Bhatia in cricket and Inam-ur- Rehaman, Vace Paes, Gurbax Singh, Shahid Noor, Ashoke Kumar in hockey. And never felt out of place in spite of defeats at times. But lately, the football team of the club seems to be suffering from astute leadership which has been the cause of exasperation for millions of fans.
This writer, a member of the club ( O – 802 ) feels and feels very strongly that an overseas coach will never understand the sentiments of MB as this is just not a football club. Rather this has been an Institution. It is not possible for any foreign coach to get into the nerves of Bengalee sentiments that evoke from the very name of Mohun Bagan. But then question may be raised for other Indian Clubs excelling in ISL under foreign coaches. Primarily they are mere football clubs and recruiting much better foreign players where the Clubs’ Think Tank decides everything. But in MB, the foreign coach calls the shot which has been very blatant in the case of Habas and Ferrando What they have decided, the authorities obliged with hope for better result. But both of these coaches have been extremely egoists and never willing to listen to advises. A Subrata Bhattacharya or a Sanjay Sen could not have such exclusive liberty to select their football team their way. But both of them had delivered and are much better strategists than Habas and Ferrando.
How could Ferrando leave Roy Krishna, Prabir Das and Jhingan from the team ? The replacements he got have all been bogus. No striker in the team. The team consists of five only left footed footballers. Specially in defence if your left foot is only active then you are bound to falter. Pogba is horribly slow and does not know where is his position in the defence. Pritam Kotal only knows how to back pass and square pass. The weakest link is Pritam and Pogba. Kiyan is never given the confidence of surety in the team. Asique Kuruniyan is played on the right wing when his only left foot is working. It is something like Bidesh Bose is playing on the right wing.
MB’s weakest aspect has been not able to negotiate set pieces. In the defence, there has not been one single player who would head away all such crosses. We can not expect a Subrata, Pradip Choudhury or Omollo but there must be one in defence whose job would be only to head away all crosses from the set-pieces. MB have conceded plenty of goals through set pieces and in dying minutes. Attention must be given on this aspect.
The Club officials would do good for such an Institution if they may remove Pritam, Pogba, and Ferrando immediately and bring alternatives. How about bringing in Sanjay Sen as the coach ? The ideal playing XI based on current recruits could be :
Vishal Kaith
Ashis Rai / Sumit Rathi, Brendan Hamill, Carl McHugh, Subhasish Bose,
Hugo Bumos , Jhonny Kauko, , Ashique Kuruniyan,
Dimitri Petratos, Md. Fardin Ali Molla, Liston Kolaso.
On bench : Kiyan Nassiri, Lenny Rodrigues, Deepak Tangri, Arsh Shaikh
But Brendan Hamill must be replaced immediately by a solid Stopper back who is fast, tall and able to head away crosses.
Enough food for thoughts !! The Club is run by the officials. Not by the Coach. Immediate interference is needed.
