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

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.