After holding Jamshedpur FC to a 0-0 draw, in spite of playing the lion's share of the match with 10-men, Robbie Fowler had claimed that a 'better (version of) East Bengal' will be seen in the next game. But to the utter dismay of the fans, their performance went southward against Hyderabad FC as they went down 3-2 on Tuesday evening.
Fowler made a few changes to his line-up with C.K.Vineeth and Jeje Lalpekhlua starting upfront but the two strikers were isolated as they didn't get any service. Vineeth had seven touches in the first half while Jeje had 10 to his name.
On the other hand, Hyderabad went all guns blazing right from the off and utilised their flanks to put pressure on East Bengal's backline. The likes of Mohammed Yasir and Hitesh Sharma made sure that they kept delivering crosses inside the box for Aridane Santana, who came tantalisingly close on quite a few occasions to break the deadlock in the first half.
ISL
East Bengal were completely outclassed by the Hyderabad youngsters. Their two strikers ran around aimlessly for the majority of the match and as usual, the onus was on Anthony Pilkington and Jacques Maghoma to create as well score goals. owler, after the Jamshedpur match, had said that the Indian players need to support the two foreigners but Lalpekhlua and Vineeth could hardly make any impact whatsoever.
The backline looked extremely ordinary and porous. Liston Colaco was introduced at half-time and the winger toyed with East Bengal's defence at will. Narayan Das could not deal with his pace and gave away a free-kick from which the Nizams levelled the score and it was his assist which saw Aridane score his second of the game.
Much was expected from Scott Neville, but the manner in which the Goan teased him with stepovers before finally getting past the Australian to set up the third goal for Halicharan Narzary was certainly an embarrassment for the veteran defender.
Fowler, after the match, once again vented out his frustration and said, "I just think we are a team that is built for the I-League. The recruitment process for this team was for the I-League and then we were catapulted to the ISL. Now its up to the players to show that they are good enough for the ISL."
The current squad clearly lack quality, fitness and are far from being consistent. They are lacking in concentration and switch off at critical junctures. To concede twice in less than a minute is unacceptable and that too giving away cheap possession is downright farcical.
Out of the five matches, they have lost four. With just a point, they continue to languish at the bottom of the league table.
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