#TFGtake - Bagan in need of multiple fixes going into AFC double header against Colombo FC and a fierce I-League title race

USUALLY WHEN IT COMES to Sri Lankan clubs facing off with Indian clubs, fans remember the likes of Saunders FC or Renown FC visiting the country for various tournaments like IFA Shield. But Colombo FC, a club that started out only in 2008 and rose quickly up the divisional ranks in a success story much like Bengaluru FC. They won their first major trophy in 2010, and won the top division league (Sri Lanka Champions League) last season, getting themselves a ticket to the AFC Cup Qualifiers.

As a team, though, they are not very different from the other Sri Lankan clubs. There's not much of a "star power" there, with the team surviving on the combined effort put in by a good mix of young and experienced squad players. They've got 3 Nigerian foreigners: Momas Yapo, David Osagie (both medios) and Afeez Olofin (fotward), who aren't necessarily as good as domestic players Tuan Rizni (medio) and Zarwan Johar (forward).

On paper, Colombo FC don't hold a candle to Mohun Bagan's star studded side; especially one that's on such a good run in the I-League, unbeaten and trailing league leaders East Bengal only by goal difference. But yet Sanjoy Sen is on the defensive ahead of his first international assignment of the season due to multiple factors.

First off, the DSK Shivajians match showed that the Mohun Bagan attack can be immediately cut down to size when Sony Norde is put in shackles. That was the case last season too; the Mariners won few matches when Sony wasn't on their side. And following a slight injury he picked up during the Shivajians game, the Haitian winger is sitting this one out. Although Sen has a quality alternative on the left flank in Kean Lewis, the Sony-dependency that Bagan have grown over the last two-and-a-half seasons must be playing in the gaffer's head.

Second, the midfield isn't doing well. The club usually plays 4-4-2 with two strikers, two wingers and two central midfielders. This season, most of the time it's Bikramjit Singh and Pronay Halder who play as orthodox medios. And both have some defensive tendencies. Pronay is a classic physically imposing defensive midfielder who often tracks back to his own half to block opponent attacks, while Bikramjit isn't exactly an attacking midfielder. Now, in the last two seasons a setup like this worked, because one of the strikers would have a withdrawn role; both Pierre Boya and Cornell Glen did this well. But this season, Bagan have Darryl Duffy and Jeje Lalpekhlua up front; both aggressive, trigger-happy box to box strikers. This leaves a gap between the forwards and midfielders which allows the opponents to control the midfield too often. If this problem is allowed to persist the Mariners will have to pay the price in big games.

The obvious solution to this is to move Katsumi Yusa, whom Sen uses mostly on the right wing, to be moved to the central attacking midfield. Yusa, fondly called 'The Fukushima Bomber' by fans, is quite good in this position. He played there in the last 20 minutes of the match against the Shivajians and those were the best moments of the game for Bagan as Yusa and Norde combined to create a few good chances up the middle-left. Prabir Das, the replacement right winger, was also effective enough with his speed and knack for accurate crosses. But the problem is, Sen knows all this, but he still has been reluctant to exercise this option from the start, for reasons best known to himself. Perhaps he prefers to bring this in as a variation to incrase the tempo towards the end of the game but as the match against DSK Shivajians showed, sometimes the last 20 minutes isn't enough. 

Third, the team continues to be shaky when it comes to defending set-pieces. Last season they conceded crucial goals from set-pieces (most popularly against Shillong Lajong and East Bengal that arguably made them lose the league title). This is a weakness that has persisted in the team for a while now and Colombo FC are uniquely well-poised to exploit that. That team prides itself on its set-piece capabilities and scored 4 goals from the same in the last 3 games. Since Bagan's classic reliance on a tall foreign defender isn't paying off this season with Eduardo being majorly off colour, the fans would hope the team will spend some extra time practicing those situations because Colombo have enough tall ones to head it in if given some space in the box.

And lastly, the ground. The Sugathadasa Stadium, home to Colombo FC, is a picturesque arena surrounded by greenery with a capacity of 28,000. But the pitch is hard and bouncy and makes it a bit tough for visiting teams to get adapted to it quickly enough. But hopefully this is a minor problem for the Mariners as every player in that squad is used to playing on artificial surfaces which are hard enough. But this ground is reportedly not as even as, say, the turf at Barasat. Plus it's been getting a lot of rain in the last couple of days; and we don't know how the soil over there reacts to rain. 

So Sanjoy Sen has enough on his plate; a lot of gaps to fill and details to iron out. Not to mention the general fatigue that a number of his players are complaining about; most of these players were in the ISL and after the stringent fixtures of the private tournament had to play 5 matches in 16 days when the I-League kicked off. This kind of labour combined with the travel tends to wear players off a bit, and this is not the kind of a game the Mariners will get away with being a bit slow.

While this AFC Cup Qualifier is a double leg encounter and even if Mohun Bagan don't win this game they will have a chance to get that done in the home leg on 7th February, failing to win 2 back to back games is likely to have a major negative impact on the team, especially when they are less than 2 weeks away from the season's first Kolkata Derby with arch rivals East Bengal who they are engaged in a fierce I-League title race with.