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Mumbai City FC stumbled in the last hurdle in their race to the playoff after Chennaiyin FC pipped them 1-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday. It was their former captain Lucian Goian who turned out to be the party-spoiler for the Islanders as his volley in the 83rd minute proved to be the demarcation line.
Chennaiyin FC made one change to the side that beat ATK 3-1 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. Their right-winger Andre Schembri had to be taken off moments before kick-off after he suffered an injury in the warm-up. Dragos Firtulescu replaced him in a like-for-like change.
Mumbai City FC, on the other hand, made two changes to the side that got hammered 2-5 by FC Goa at the Fatorda Stadium in Margao. Bidyananda Singh and Bipin Singh got relegated to the bench as Amine Chermiti and Sourav Das took their place in the starting line-up.
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The game had a tepid pace until the 54th minute when Mumbai City FC's Sourav Das was shown a red card for taking down Lallianzuala Chhangte who was through on goal. With a man down and players getting tired, it always seemed as if the Islanders would concede.
Chennaiyin FC's Nerijus Valskis flicked a corner-kick from Rafael Crivellaro to the far post and Lucian Goian made no mistake in smashing the ball past the Mumbai City FC goalkeeper. Neither side could manage to score a goal later as the Marina Machans punched their tickets to the semi-final in style.
Mumbai City FC gave a decent fight throughout the season but all their hard work got undone in the final game of the season. Here are 5 things which went wrong for the Islanders in the 2019-20 edition of ISL.
#5 Lost steam early in the season
Mumbai City FC began their campaign with a 1-0 victory over Kerala Blasters but lost the steam thereafter. Losses to FC Goa and Odisha FC coupled with sharing the spoils with Chennaiyin FC, NorthEast United FC, ATK and Kerala Blasters in the first half meant the Islanders found themselves with only 7 points from the first 7 matches.
No one gave Mumbai City FC a chance to reach the playoffs but Jorge Costa turned the things around with back-to-back victories over Bengaluru FC, Jamshedpur FC, and Hyderabad FC. In a short league like the ISL, those three wins quickly put the Islanders back in the top four.
But, looking back, one does realize that Mumbai City FC took too much time to get in their groove which proved to be costly in the business end.
#4 Injuries hampered Mumbai City FC's progress
One of the major reasons why Mumbai City FC took time to settle was the fact that injuries didn't really give their head coach Jorge Costa a free hand in selecting his playing XI. The Portuguese had to settle for a makeshift eleven a lot of time with a lot of players playing out of positions.
The trio of Rowllin Borges, Mato Grgic, and Modou Sougou was supposed to be an integral part of their setup but Mumbai City FC missed their services. Once they returned to full fitness, things began to get going for the Islanders.
However, a leg injury to their playmaker Paulo Machado before the game against Hyderabad FC proved to be a killer blow. Although they managed to eke out victories and draws, the number of chances created in a match dropped substantially.
Injury to their right-back Sarthak Golui which ruled him out for the final couple of matches also hampered their chances.
#3 Not signing a replacement for Paulo Machado
Once the news of Paulo Machado being ruled out of the season due to injury became open, many expected Mumbai City FC to sign his replacement for him quickly. However, to the surprise of their fans and many, they bought no one.
Their head coach Jorge Costa had made it clear that he would not sign a replacement just because there was a vacancy. The new foreign player would have taken time to settle down and by the time he would get acclimatized, the season would have gotten over.
Although, the Mumbai City FC management did hold talks with a couple of players who had played in the ISL before, the negotiations broke down. As a result, they could never find Machado's replacement and the gap left by the Portuguese got never filled.
Moreover, they even released Sauvik Chakrabarti to Hyderabad FC. Mohammed Rafique had to play as a makeshift right-back after the injury of Sarthak Golui, which proved to be costly later on.
#2 The defenders failed to maintain the mark set by the previous squad
Not retaining their captain Lucian Goian for the next season raised a lot of eyebrows amongst the Mumbai City FC faithful. While his replacement Mato Grgic was good with his defending skills, he lacked the leadership quality which Goian brought with him.
The Islanders also released Joyner Lourenco to Jamshedpur FC, who formed a solid partnership with Goian in the previous season. His replacement from Pratik Chowdhury failed to maintain his footing on numerous occasions and turned out to be a weak link in the back-four.
Mumbai City FC ended the season with conceding 29 goals, the third-worst in the season. Hyderabad FC and Jamshedpur FC, who let in more, never looked as if they would make it to the playoffs.
One of the hallmarks of all the teams that have qualified for the playoffs in the past is their rock-solid defense. Having kept only four clean sheets throughout the season, the opposition forwards always had the upper hand over the Mumbai City FC defenders.
#1 Mumbai City FC lacked an out-and-out striker
Mumbai City FC ended the campaign with 14 different goalscorers. Their head coach Jorge Costa needs to be given due credit for that. But, it also meant the squad lacked an out-and-out striker who would pump in goals consistently.
In the previous season, Modou Sougou was deployed as a central striker and the Senegalese smashed 12 goals in 18 matches. This season, he could contribute only 3 goals and 2 assists in 14 matches. The prime reason was that he wa fielded at the right-wing position rather than centrally to maintain the overall balance.
Their Tunisian forward Amine Chermiti could score only 6 goals in 16 matches and he even missed a simple one-on-one opportunity with the Chennaiyin FC goalkeeper when the scoreline read 0-0.
Looking at the top goalscorers chart, not a single Mumbai City FC player featured in the top ten.
