I-League: Five things new East Bengal coach Marcos Falopa must do

East Bengal’s new Brazilian coach Marcos Falopa has aimed to do much better than the highly successful and consistent Trevor Morgan. Sportskeeda lists the five things that Marcos Falopa must do in order to achieve his goal.

The list is in no particular order

Embrace Kolkata and Indian football culture

The one thing common between every successful foreign coach in India has been the fact that they have embraced the culture here. The likes of David Booth, Karim Bencherifa and Trevor Morgan have all accepted the flaws in Indian football and still managed to get the best out of the players at their disposal. In fact, all three of them even embraced the non-football side of things as well which helped them understand the players better and thus were able to last for a longer period in India.

Falopa only has been offered a one-year contract thus he doesn’t have to go into the details of off-the-field matters but he certainly cannot complain about issues like the lack of infrastructure and also has to get used to the media frenzy that will surround every training session.

The Brazilian would certainly benefit from his predecessor’s advice for any new foreign coach “Come with an open mind, have no preconceptions, accept it for what it is and then try to change what you feel should be changed. Listen to other people’s opinions but be your own man, make your decisions and stand by them.”

Don’t make too many tactical changes

James Moga will add more firepower to the East Bengal attack

To be fair to Falopa, he is highly experienced and thus will realise that this East Bengal team doesn’t need too many tactical tweaks. At his first press conference, the Brazilian stated that he will decide the playing style depending on the players he has and added that he would consult the players about the system that was used under Morgan.

Falopa likes both the 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 but since there haven’t been too many changes in personnel from last season, the 64-year-old should try and opt the same 4-1-2-1-2 and 4-1-3-2 that Morgan used.

In truth, the East Bengal squad looks even better than last year because of the addition of the foreigners Ryuji Sueoka and James Moga. Unlike last year, Chidi will now be able to share the goal-scoring responsibility with the other two foreign attackers. With each I-League club being allowed to field four foreigners in the starting eleven now, Falopa will be able to use that attacking trio together and thus Morgan’s system would be perfect. He can then gradually also add his own inputs to minimise some of the mistakes that were made last season and hence a detailed video analysis of the previous campaign is mandatory.

Build the team around Mehtab Hossain

Mehtab Hossain has become indispensable for East Bengal

The four foreigners will be the key for East Bengal, especially the two strikers Edeh Chidi and James Moga. But if Falopa is looking for a leader, then he doesn’t have to look beyond newly-appointed club captain Mehtab Hossain. The midfield general has gone from strength to strength after joining East Bengal in 2007 and has become a key figure for the Indian national team also. Although he wasn’t the captain in the last three years, Mehtab was the true leader of Trevor Morgan’s East Bengal and Falopa should try to maintain that.

Falopa will bring in some new ideas and changes in personnel also but one player who should be the first name on his team sheet is Mehtab. The 27-year-old could be off to Spain for a training-cum-trial stint but he had a similar experience last year in Scotland and returned as a better player so Falopa would be hoping for the same.

The Brazilian also has a few more experienced reliable players in Harmanjot Singh Khabra, Saumik Dey and Uga Okpara so it’s fair to say that Falopa already has the core of the team ready and he should aim to retain that with Mehtab as the leader.

Sort out the goalkeeping situation

Will the experienced Abhijit Mondal be the first choice goalkeeper?

The only possible weakness in the East Bengal squad is the goalkeeping department and maybe that’s why the club have opted to have four players for that position. To be fair to young Gurpreet Sandhu, he has shown maturity beyond his years and still despite being only 21, he has already played in many high-pressure matches.

Gurpreet has made a couple of high profile errors but that will make him a better keeper eventually as he is still quite young and will learn from his mistakes. However East Bengal do need experienced heads like Abhijit Mondal and Abhra Mondal, who has rejoined the club, to step up and perform with more consistency.

Abhijit is a former I-League winner but technically isn’t the best and thus does get found out on some occasions and the same goes with Abhra, who on his day can be the best around but he too is error prone. Young Jayanta Paul is the fourth keeper and still remains a raw talent.

Falopa and his son Americo, who is both the goalkeeping coach and physical fitness trainer, will have to quickly decide who is the number one and stick with him for a considerable amount of time. Last season, the club went against Morgan’s wish and didn’t offer Sandip Nandy a new contract and that proved to be a huge blunder as Nandy went on to win the title with Churchill Brothers. Thus East Bengal’s new coach must get the goalkeeping situation right this time around.

Solid pre-season a MUST

Marcos Falopa and his son Americo will have to prepare the team well in pre-season

The only blemish on Trevor Morgan’s three-year spell was the fact that he didn’t win the I-League. The main reason for that was the fatigue that the East Bengal players experienced as Morgan had to fulfil the expectations of club officials and fans by fielding strong teams in tournaments like the Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield.

The same will be expected of Falopa and thus he will need a fully-fit squad for the long marathon season. Hence the pre-season preparations will be vital and thus the senior and junior Falopa will have to do some serious hard work between now and the middle of September when they face Semen Padang in the AFC Cup quarter-finals.

Everything, starting from physical tests to the exposure camp in Kalyani and the invitational tournament involving Mohun Bagan and Uruguay’s Central Espanol, has to be used immaculately by the father-son duo. In the past we have seen many I-League clubs having numerous injury problems during the season as they failed to have a proper pre-season and thus the Falopas can’t take anything for granted in this period.

Last season, East Bengal played 59 matches in all competitions and if they once again qualify for the AFC Cup, it could be a similar number this time also and for that Falopa will need a squad and not a group of 15-16 players. Many people might look at the two-legged tie against Semen Padang as Falopa’s first real test but his immediate concern will be getting the team ready for another long season and the work starts from Wednesday.