ATK Mohun Bagan might find themselves in a comfortable spot on the Indian Super League (ISL) table, placed second after 14 games. But there's no denying that the former champions have not been at their best lately. Their struggles continued against Northeast United, slumping to their third defeat of the season. (More Football News)
And when they take on Kerala Blasters at the Fatorda Stadium on Sunday, they'll be looking to rediscover their mojo and close in on leaders Mumbai City.
In their last four matches, the Mariners have witnessed a dip in form, notching just one win while losing twice. Their defense has been under the pump, shipping four goals. In their opening nine games, Bagan conceded just thrice, highlighting their defensive struggles.
Upfront, the lack of missed chances has continued to cost them points, with the Kolkata side scoring just thrice in their last four games. They have netted just 13 goals all season, which is the third-worst tally in the league.
Fresh after acquiring the services of Marcelinho, on-loan from Odisha FC, ATKMB coach Antonio Lopez Habas believes his team is improving despite the recent results but has called for his attack to step up.
"We were improving our performance and our creation of chances in the last few matches but we have to continue with the same purpose," he said. "After the first few matches and the first few rounds of the league, the team consolidated the system and the idea. Now we have to increase our attacking performance."
On the other hand, opponents Kerala are unbeaten in their previous five games and still in contention of reaching the playoffs and are just four points away from fourth place.
While form favours Kerala, it was ATKMB who came out on top when the two sides faced each other in the opening game of the ISL season. However, for Kerala coach Kibu Vicuna, that result won't have any bearing on Sunday's match.
"It was a question of one detail (defensive mistake), not that they were better than us," said Vicuna, last season's title-winning coach with then-Mohun Bagan himself.
"Now the circumstances are different. ATKMB is the former champion and they are second. They have fantastic players and a good coach. It's going to be a difficult challenge for us."
Head-to-head: This will be their second meeting with ATK Mohun Bagan competing in the ISL as a new entity after the merger of defending champions, ATK and I-League champions, Mohun Bagan. In the first-leg, ATK Mohun Bagan won 1-0.
All you need to know about the ATK Mohun Bagan Vs Kerala Blasters match:
Match: Match 78 of ISL 2020-21 between ATK Mohun Bagan and Kerala Blasters
Date: January 31 (Sunday), 2021.
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: Fatorda Stadium, Goa
TV Listing: Star Sports 1/HD, Star Sports 2/HD (English); Star Sports Hindi 1/HD, Star Sports 3, Star Gold 2 (Hindi), Asianet Plus, Asianet Movies (Malayalam); Star Sports Bangla; Star Sports Kannada; Star Sports Tamil; Star Sports Telugu and Star Sports Marathi.
Live Streaming: Online streaming will be available on Disney+ Hotstar VIP and JioTV.
Likely XIs
ATK Mohun Bagan: Arindam Bhattacharja; Prabir Das, Tiri, Sandesh Jhingan; Subhasish Bose, Carl McHugh, Pritam Kotal, Javier Hernandez, Pronay Halder; Manvir Singh, Roy Krishna.
Kerala Blasters: Albino Gomes; Sandeep Singh, Bakary Kone, Costa Nhamoinesu, Jessel Carneiro; Sahal Abdul Samad, Rohit Kumar, Vicente Gomez, Lalthathanga Khawlhring; Jordan Murray, Gary Hooper.
