I-League 2017: Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal, 5 Talking Points

#2 Subs inside half an hour for both sides

It was rather unusual to see substitutions being made in the first half itself. (Photo: Screengrab/ Hotstar)

There were no goals in the first 30 minutes, but what we did get were two substitutions; both teams' right-backs coincidentally getting the hook.

Coaches do often feel the need to change something, but it is a rarity when both coaches choose to make early substitutions. As mentioned earlier, East Bengal's Khalid Jamil chose to take Mehtab off in just the 22nd minute, replacing him with Lalram Chullova. It was a substitution that Jamil made in their previous game as well, after 38 minutes in that instance. It will certainly be intriguing to know what Jamil's reasoning is as he's done the exact same substitution in both games thus far.

Sanjoy Sen, on the other hand, chose to take off Naro Shrestha and put on SK Faiaz in the 29th minute. It didn't look like Shrestha was suffering from any sort of injury. Perhaps Sen deemed he wasn't making much of an impact. Will be interesting to know.