PREVIEW: Mumbai look for 1st away win; Delhi aim for top position in the battle of player-coaches
IT CAN BE CALLED the Battle of the Player-Coaches. The two franchises, coached by two footballing personalities who have been at the top of things as footballers back in the day. Both have been appointed as the boss of their teams with relatively less experience. While Roberto came to Delhi Dynamos as a coach first and then took on the additional role of the "marquee player", Anelka was in Mumbai City last year as a player and now he is been made the manager on top of that.
As players, both are far from what they used to be. Both have spent most of the time in the sidelines for the most of the season. Both got started themselves in the last match their team played, riding on a few good results, thinking those particular home games would be a good opportunity to ease themselves back into the squad. Both ended up playing badly and disrupting the flow of the team. In the end both teams dropped points. Hopefully both of them learned their lesson.
The season of both these franchises -- the only ones left in the ISL to carry on with the amateurish, rag-tag tradition of having player-coaches -- have had a strikingly similar pattern but with one striking difference. While Mumbai City's run of wins came at home where they utterly dominated the opposition, for Delhi Dynamos the wins mostly came away from home, in closely fought matches invariably with a one goal margin.
Mumbai City began their winning streak by beating Delhi Dynamos 2-0 at home about two weeks ago. Now their run of home games is over. And for Delhi, this is the second of the patch of four straight home games they have. The only thing lacking so far is a run of home wins -- a la Mumbai and Pune -- that will propel them to the top.
The thought of going on top is definitely in the mind of Roberto Carlos. Speaking to the reporters yesterday, he made no bones about his intentions and ambitions,
“It’s a good team. But our goal is to go ahead of Pune. It’s very important for us to win tomorrow so that we can top the table. But Mumbai is a great team... you can’t underestimate teams and also the ISL is very competitive. So we have to be extra careful when we play tomorrow.”
As for his counterpart Anelka, he has an aversion to facing media when times are slightly tough. Whenever he anticipates difficult questions coming their way he sends his deputy Oscar Bruzon to field them. And that's what he did yesterday, to no surprise.
Bruzon said he understood the situation Mumbai City was in, having lost to the defending champions Atletico de Kolkata in a manner that completely undermined their good run of form in the previous three games. And now they are in a precarious position where they are at a stone's throw from a place in the top four but are looking at a tough season ahead as they will have to travel between every single remaining game.
The points that they dropped against ATK may turn out to be crucial in the end, seeing Mumbai City are yet to win away from home. Bruzon said:
“We have identified the mistakes of the last game and we are ready to fight hard and win this game. We were a little overconfident in the last match. One game is one battle. The next battle is tomorrow. The worry is the next match, nothing else... they will make changes in the line-up. I am sure they will do that…we will be ready to take the three points. We are here for three points. We will find the best plan to do that.”
Finding the best plan to win tonight is even more important for Mumbai City because they are about to lose some of their best players to national duty after tonight's game as the World Cup Qualifiers resume. Crucial squad members like Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Pal will leave for Bangalore to join the Indian national team ahead of their match against Guam. Sony Norde, one of the chief architects of Mumbai City's success, will leave to join the Haiti national team. The Indians will miss one game while Sony will miss two. Bruzon didn't hide his concern about the absence of the Mohun Bagan winger in the presser:
“We will miss him. He has been very important to us. One of our best performers. For example, analyse the success of Sunil in terms of conversion, many of his goals came due to Sony.”
For Delhi, though, the absence of their "star" striker Robin Singh during national duty will probably be a mid blow at best. The Bengaluru FC forward hasn't been doing that well; and Gustavo Marmentini, who has been pretty great every time he came off the bench for Richard Gadze (he scored the last minute winner against ATK at Salt Lake Stadium), is still not getting a start on his account. It would be great if Carlos decided to bench Robin and start Gustavo, using Sanjiban Ghosh in goal instead of Toni Doblas to make up for the Indian deficit, but that probably won't be the case. Mumbai still have one of the best attacks in the tournament and Delhi will need their best man under the crossbar.
What Carlos will hopefully do is drop himself. Dutch medio Serginho Greene can start instead of him. The rest of the team looks very much in balance and seeing that national duty will force his hand soon, Carlos may decide to use these players while he still can. Knowing this is not a title race but a sprint to top four, Carlos has been relaxed about the enormity of the task, and he reiterated that yesterday,
“The goals will come… I’m not going to pressure my players. They will score when the opportunity comes. We are in the top half of the table. It’s more than enough. Maybe tomorrow my strikers wake up lucky and score two each.”
As for Mumbai City, Anelka should drop himself too. Frederic Piquionne has no business starting from the bench; he can be the target man from the start. Selim Benachour can come straight on instead of Frantz Bertin in the midfield. And in the right wing, Subhash Singh may get benched after his horrible performance against Kolkata. Maybe it's time to give Pratesh Shirodhkar a run.
Either way, this game translates into opportunity for both the teams. For Mumbai, this is a chance to set precedence; to get their first away win and seal their place among the top four. For Delhi, this is a chance to dominate a relatively weak Mumbai and reeling Mumbai defence and emerge as a multi-goal victor for the first time, emphatically rising to the top of the points table.
All these dreams and ambitions are well within the realm of possibility, even plausibility. The only thing that can't happen is for the coaches to justifiably occupy a place in the starting line-up.
Probable starting XI:
Delhi Dynamos FC - Toni Doblas, Zodingliana Ralte, John Arne Riise, Anas Edathodika, Sehnaj Singh, Serginho Greene, Florent Malouda, Hans Mulder, Richard Gadze, Robin Singh, Francis Fernandes
Mumbai City FC - Subrata Pal, Lalchhuan Mawia, Darren O'Dea, Pavel Cmovs, Ashutosh Mehta, Juan Aguilera, Selim Benachour, Sony Norde, Sunil Chhetri, Pratesh Shirodhkar, Frederic Piquionne
