Preview: Jamshedpur FC eye season's first win against Mumbai City

The Men of Steel are ahead of the Islanders in terms of head-to-head stats in the ISL.

Mumbai City will take on Jamshedpur FC at the Mumbai Football Arena (MFA) in Andheri on Saturday. The Islanders will look to continue their winning momentum after rounding up a convincing victory against Odisha FC in their previous encounter.

On the other hand, Jamshedpur will be edging to embark on a victorious run after suffering a 3-2 loss against the Juggernauts in their opening match. Both these teams appear to be solid in paper and fluid on the field regardless of the recent results. On that note, let us look at a detailed preview of their upcoming faceoff in the league stage.

The Stakes

Mumbai City

The Islanders will be wary of the monumental cost that a minor slip-up could have on their league stage standings especially after the previous season. Des Buckingham’s men will be eager to get three points in their bag and not let the fans down in just their second home game of the campaign.

The side looked in fine touch after the coach carried out a little shakeup in the midfield in the last game. They will hence want to stamp their authority and set the tone early on in the season by turning in a dominant performance against the incumbent League Shield winners.

Jamshedpur FC

Jamshedpur FC have to live up to the lofty expectations that they set after their incredible run in the league last year. They practically gave away the game in the final few minutes against Odisha. It reeked of a side that was still a bit uncertain of its balance and holding on to the advantage that it had garnered earlier in the match.

Jamshedpur will be keen to brush aside such concerns by defeating the home side in the upcoming game. Their defence will be put to test by Mumbai’s incredible midfield and frontline. Jamshedpur can hence not afford to concede easy goals like they ended up doing last time around.

Team News

Mumbai City will be missing the services of Amey Ranawade in this encounter as well. Meanwhile, Jamshedpur FC too, have a few injury concerns.

Head-to-Head

The two teams have come up against each other on 10 occasions in the league so far. Jamshedpur FC have won five games whereas Mumbai City has emerged victorious on three instances. Two matches ended up as a draw.

Probable Line-ups

Mumbai City: Phurba Lachenpa (GK); Rahul Bheke, Rostyn Griffiths, Mehtab Singh, Sanjeev Stalin; Ahmed Jahouh, Alberto Noguera, Lalengmawia Ralte; Lallianzuala Chhangte, Bipin Singh, Greg Strewart.

Jamshedpur FC: Rehenesh TP (GK); Laldinliana Renthlei, Peter Hartley, Eli Sabia, Ricky Lallawmawma; Germanpreet Singh, Wellington Priori, Ritwik Das; Boris Singh, Farukh Choudhury, Daniel Chima.

Man to Watch

Alberto Noguera (Mumbai City)

The midfield lynchpin was instrumental in pulling the strings for Mumbai from the centre of the park against Odisha. The Spaniard helped the Islanders transition seamlessly from defence to attack and steered the ball ahead with purpose multiple times.

His link-up with Ahmed Jahouh really enabled Mumbai to take total control of the proceedings in the midfield and thus dictate the flow of the game. Buckingham will be eyeing another such dominant outing from the 33-year-old.

Peter Hartley (Jamshedpur FC)

Peter Hartley will have to hold the backline together if Jamshedpur wishes to avoid conceding easy goals like they did against Odisha. The centre-back will have to be on his toes to keep the dynamic Greg Stewart in check throughout the course of the game.

Mumbai have shown glimpses on being both fluid and efficient if they manage to get on some momentum whilst moving up on the field. The Islanders have devised multiple ways of unlocking the opposition’s defence and Hartley will be key in ensuring that Jamshedpur does not fall prey to those tactics.

Did You Know?

• Jamshedpur FC will be up against the player who pioneered them to the League Winners’ Shield last year – Greg Stewart. The incumbent Golden Ball holder had scored 10 goals and assisted 10 others in Jamshedpur’s title-winning season in 2021-22.
• Bipin Singh has now become the highest goal-scorer (15) in the history of Mumbai City with his late strike against Odisha FC last weekend.
• The previous match was only the third time that Mourtada Fall didn’t feature on the field in his three seasons with Mumbai City so far.

Telecast

The match between Mumbai City and Jamshedpur FC will kick off at 5:30 pm IST on 22nd October, Saturday. It will be telecasted live on the Star Sports Network. Disney+HotStar and JioTV will also stream the match.