#3 Mumbai’s curious attacking play
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Sony Norde had come into the Mumbai starting XI to replace the suspended Diego Forlan, and the Haitian was bright whenever he got the ball. But curiously enough, Mumbai’s midfielders ignored the option of passing it to him, even when he was in acres of space on the left flank.
They kept going to the right side, towards Defederico and Sehnaj Singh, who was providing width on that flank even when Defederico was cutting in. But in truth, going to the other flank might have been a better option for Mumbai.
Pritam Kotal was tucking in close to the centre-backs, ensuring that Kolkata defended very narrow on that side. With Sena Ralte also bombing forward on that side, Mumbai should have explored that option more, especially in the first half.
But it wasn’t just that which was a little difficult to understand about Mumbai’s attacks. Chhetri is not the biggest striker in the world, nor is his game built on holding up the ball and bringing other players into it. Given that, the number of times they went aerial looking for Chhetri was not understandable.
Also, Mumbai attacked with width but their crosses were largely off the mark throughout the game. When the crosses actually were put into a good area, there was no player attacking the cross. Mumbai lacked that cohesion needed to break down a stubborn defence.
