3 lessons Kerala Blasters need to learn from their Durand Cup 2023 campaign 

Despite securing a comprehensive 5-0 victory against the Indian Air Force Football Team on Monday, the Kerala Blasters FC have been knocked out of the 132nd edition of the Durand Cup.

On the face of it, the Blasters' match results don't look particularly poor on paper in the tournament. The Yellow Army suffered a 4-3 loss against I-League giants Gokulam Kerala, managed a 2-2 draw against fellow ISL outfit Bengaluru FC and scripted a 5-0 victory against the Indian Air Force Football Team in their three group-stage games.

It isn't the most impressive run, but a few key deep-lying problems can be pointed out from their Durand campaign this year.

At the end of the day, it is another chance at lifting a trophy (or three, for that matter) that has gone begging for the Kerala Blasters, whose senior team is yet to clinch their first piece of silverware.

Here are three lessons that the Yellow Army learnt from their Durand Cup 2023 games that they need to rectify ahead of the Indian Super League season.

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#1 Vulnerable against counter-attacks

While it is common knowledge that most goals in football are scored in transitions, Kerala Blasters look particularly in jeopardy when they lose the ball.

Out of the seven goals that they conceded in the Durand Cup, three of them came from counter-attacks. Pritam Kotal and Prabir Das will still take some time before gelling well in Ivan Vukomanovic's back four, as they were rather suboptimal in the tournament.

Hormipam Ruivah, who was heavily linked with a move away from the club earlier this summer, also looked suspect at times. Although the Kerala Blasters will have the services of the seasoned Marko Leskovic once the ISL commences, they will need to work on their defending as a unit in transitions.

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#2 Susceptible to headers

Gokulam Kerala sliced through Kerala's defence with two headers in their 4-3 win against them. The first was scored by Aminou Bouba and the next by Sreekuttan.

They weren't free headers as well. While multiple Kerala Blasters players rose up to challenge Bouba, Prabir Das did the same against Sreekuttan. However, the Blasters were unsuccessful on both occasions to prevent the ball from going inside the net.

This is another area that the team from Kerala will look to improve in before the ISL arrives with its plethora of talented headers of the ball across various teams.

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#3 Limited usage of Indian forwards

It is no secret that Ivan Vukomanovic trusts his foreign forwards a lot. Ever since his first season in India, Kerala Blasters have played with Adrian Luna plus two foreign strikers in their attack.

While Sahal Abdul Samad and Rahul KP have shined on some occasions, it has largely been the likes of Alvaro Vazquez, Jorge Pereyra Diaz, Dimitrios Diamantikos, Ivan Kalyuzhnyi, Apostolos Giannou, and Luna who have made the headlines.

This time, however, Vukomanovic has two very potent Indian center-forwards at his disposal - Bidyashagar Singh, the I-League 2020-21 Golden Boot winner, and Ishan Pandita, the India International. Both players are very much capable of scoring goals, as Bidyashagar demonstrated against the Indian Navy FT by scoring a hattrick.

It will be interesting to see how Vukomanovic utilizes his Indian forwards this season, but they definitely deserve more minutes than their predecessors at the club.