Stephen Constantine highlights plans for upcoming season

The East Bengal tactician also gave an important injury update.

East Bengal have endured a tough season under Stephen Constantine, winning five, drawing one and losing twelve of their 18 league matches so far this season. They face shield winners Mumbai City FC before ending the season with the derby against ATK Mohun Bagan.

Constantine was present in the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Mumbai City that takes place in the Mumbai Football Arena. The coach reflected on the season so far and the road ahead. Edited excerpts from the press conference are as follows.

Facing the champions Mumbai City

Despite the Islanders’ unbeaten run being snapped last time out against Bengaluru FC, Stephen Constantine expects his opponents to come all out. He said, “They won the league two to three weeks ago, pretty sure they did not want to lose to Bengaluru. They wanted the invincible tag. I expect them to come all out. They need to stay sharp for the playoffs. I expect a difficult game.”

Focussing game by game

Although a huge clash in the form of the derby beckons, the mentor wants to take things game by game and mentioned that the season has not gone exactly to plan, “I play Mumbai on Sunday, that is what I am thinking about. We cannot think about the next game before the first game. I can’t afford to think past the next game. We have everything to play for and we will think about the derby after this fixture. It’s an important game, I know. Every time we win it’s a huge relief.

He added, "We won five games (this time), last year we won one and the year before two. Have we had the perfect season? Of course not. But we have not been prepared. We did not get the players we wanted. We played two years of training games in the bubble with no crowd. I don’t know based on what people thought we will win 15 games this year.”

Team News

Stephen Constantine shed light on the availability of their star defender. "Ivan is still out. He will not be playing, and continues to have swelling in his ankle. We have one or two guys down with fever. I think we will be okay."

"We are playing the champions, as far as I am concerned. You win the shield, you are the champions. As soon as the whistle finishes, I am thinking about the derby. I know how much it means to our fans, but you have to take it one game at a time. No sense of relief if we win the game, just three points," he added.

Planning ahead

Stephen Constantine stressed that having an ideal pre-season is what the club needs and that he knows what players to keep and sell. The Englishman said, “This is not where you want to be but when you don’t plan ahead, things happen and you are not in control, this is why we are in the situation. Looking forward, I know which players we should keep and which players we should remove.

He added, "I know which players I want to bring and if we do those things before the pre-season starts, when you have 75% of the team on the first day of training then you can assess. If after that I don’t succeed, I’ll be the first one to say I should go. When you have had the issues we have had this season and the results, it is there to assess.”