#3 Delhi’s toothless attack
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In a performance very unlike what they have shown this season, Delhi seemed bereft of ideas in the final third of the pitch. Mehtab Hossain played a stunning role in shadowing Florent Malouda all game and denied the French star any time or room to manoeuvre the ball in. Marcelinho was also very quiet.
The Brazilian’s inefficiency today must have irked Zambrotta even more as Kerala were having problems at their left-back position. Josu was very close to getting red carded and Didier Kadio is not naturally a left-back. Given that, Delhi should definitely have put more pressure down their right flank.
Chinglensana Singh and Souvik Chakraborty did very little to go forward from their full-back positions and that might have been the key for them – to get more men running into space from deep and freeing up some room for their more creative attackers.
As it was, both Kean Lewis and Marcelinho were very isolated on the flanks and could not do much against a Kerala defence that stood tall and repelled everything that came their way.
It didn’t help Delhi’s cause that Aaron Hughes and Cedric Hengbart were overpowering Richard Gadze, meaning that the Ghanaian could not hold the ball up well, and bring the other Delhi attackers into play.
