I-League 2018-19: 3 reasons why East Bengal lost to Chennai City

#1 East Bengal badly missed a second striker

East Bengal missed a potent attacker

Since Enrique Esqueda broke his rib and departed for Spain, East Bengal badly missed a striker who could hold the ball and try to create space to score.

After the Mexican departed, Joby Justin played as a lone striker and the Keralite found the back of the net regularly. Apart from him, Laldanmawia Ralte came in handy for East Bengal and has scored four times after returning from injury.

But that is not a solution. East Bengal struggled to score whenever Joby was heavily marked by opponent defenders, as was the case against Chennai City. All the passes or crosses that went Joby's way were easily kept away by either Roberto Eslava or Gourav Bora.

Nowadays, all the top teams around the world play with a lone striker. But they do have the support of quality attacking midfielders. Even though East Bengal have Toni Dovale and Jaime Santos, both of them failed to make their mark against Chennai.

This is because the Chennai defenders gave them no space to pass. The channel was narrowed down and both the Spaniards of East Bengal failed to make an impact.

This only led to EB losing the game and handing Chennai City a golden opportunity to win the I-League.