#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.