Jamshedpur FC 3-2 Kerala Blasters FC: 3 reasons why the Red Miners came out on top | ISL 2019-20

#1 Jamshedpur stop the supply to Kerala's forwards to curb their attacking threat

Aitor Monroy (extreme right) put in an incredible shift in the middle of the park. (Credits: ISL)

In the first 30-odd minutes, both Ogbeche and Raphael Messi Bouli were making their presence felt by pressurising the Jamshedpur FC even while not having possession. Further, they were also aided by Mario Arques' long balls and Moustapha Gning's lung-bursting forward runs.

In fact, Messi Bouli could have finished the game in the 15th minute itself when Arques' delivered an elegant outside the boot through ball beyond Jamshedpur's last man Tiri. However, the Cameroonian forward smashed his shot over the cross-bar to waste a golden opportunity. During that same move, Tiri also clashed with his goal-keeper Subrata Paul and had to be taken to the hospital for scans. However, Kerala couldn't take advantage of Tiri's absence as the hosts' mid-fielders started to be more proactive in the center of the park.

The duo of Aitor Monroy and Amarjit Singh closed down any available space quickly so that the duo of Arques and Gning can't run into and cause havoc. Also, unlike the first 15-20 minutes, the entire back-line also stopped dwelling on the ball and started clearing whenever the situation arose. Further, the wingers Farukh Choudhary and Noe Acosta also dropped back on a number of occasions to stop Kerala's wide-men from supplying many crosses to Ogbeche and Messi Bouli.

Ofcourse, Kerala's second goal came when Jessel Carneiro found Ogbeche with a delightful cross but it was a rare moment in the game. This is also reflected in the fact that Kerala only managed to get in five crosses in the entire game. With Kerala always depending heavily on Ogbeche and Messi Bouli for the goals, this move turned out to be a key one to ensure victory.