We’re now creating more chances in the games: Carles Cuadrat

Carles Cuadrat highlighted what improvements are needed at East Bengal.

East Bengal will be desperate to get back to winning ways when they host Kerala Blasters in their upcoming Indian Super League (ISL) clash on Saturday, 4 November. The Red & Gold Brigade are on a two-game losing streak, which they will look to overturn and produce an inspired performance in front of their home fans at the Salt Lake Stadium.

Thoughts on Kerala Blasters clash

Even though Kerala Blasters might miss some key players, Carles Cuadrat isn’t taking the game for granted at all. Ahead of the game, he said: “We have to think about ourselves, not the opponent. All the teams have great players and as we’ve seen in the last games, all teams have missed some players but some other players have played in their positions and been instrumental for the team. We have to respect all the players. We can use 15-16 players in a match who can be decisive, so we can’t really think about how they are missing some players.”

Carles Cuadrat stays calm despite East Bengal’s shaky form

When asked about what has gone wrong for East Bengal in the last few games, Cuadrat asked for calmness and explained: “Let’s be positive. We do not have a lot of relation with the past few seasons’ East Bengal teams. We have a fully new squad, we only have three players from last season’s line-up. So we can’t compare it to last season’s failures affecting them. We’re in a new project, so you have to adjust a lot of things to become stronger. I’m happy with what we’ve been doing so far, we’ve won five out of our 10 official games. In half of the games, we’ve been winning and that is a very good number. It’s true that we suffered a defeat after scoring the first goal last time, but we’ve also had results in the last moments of games.

“We came back against Hyderabad and NorthEast United. It’s about what you have in your hands. In my hands I have a team that can be very competitive. Even if we lose tomorrow, the fact will be that my team has gotten more points in the first five games in the ISL than the previous seasons.

You can talk about the past seasons and everything, but the fact is that we are in a new project and we are in the right way. We are approaching the games positively. For now, we know how we want to play and we have to implement that on the pitch. We’re now creating more chances in the games and obviously, the last two games have been lessons for us. We’ve analyzed how we’re conceding goals and have talked to the players about that,” he added.

What can East Bengal improve upon?

There are, although, a few things Carles Cuadrat really wants his team to improve upon. He revealed: “If you see my history in the ISL, or my team’s history, we’ve dominated in set-pieces. Until now, the set-pieces helped us a lot in the Durand Cup but not in the ISL and that is something we must improve.”

“What we have to change is that we have to be defensively stronger. In the past seasons in the ISL, my teams have gotten a lot of clean-sheets, which we’ve failed so far this season. We are working on this. If you see most of our games, the opponent team is creating a very few chances and that ones only coming from set-pieces, so we have to work on stopping that. We need to stop letting opponents create even the opportunity to kick a free kick, a corner or a penalty against us” he added.

Cuadrat eager to bring Bengaluru FC spirit to East Bengal

Carles Cuadrat doesn’t believe his East Bengal side is that far behind the top ones in the ISL. He also compared the loss to FC Goa to the El Clasico result recently. He said: “I’m very happy with the way my players are working and the energy being put into the games. The only thing is that we must understand that every game has different dynamics. There is a moment for different things for every game.

“I was very happy with the first half of the Goa match and we were the better team. But in the second half, after 10 minutes we started losing the ball in the key moments and at that moment when you let the other teams have too much possession – they can score the goals. So that is something the players have to learn, to stop opponents from getting that much possession. It is not a question of fight or attitude. We have a very good example from our previous defeat to what happened in the Barcelona-Real Madrid game. Unfortunately for me(as a Barca fan), Barcelona lost the match in the second half and that was coming.

“As a player, you have to take different positions to stop the other team from dominating and help your team get a result. A lot of the times, when teams have nothing to lose, things are happening for that team. Because you are free of pressure and then you push, so you can make a comeback. There is also a lot of red cards happening, because of the emotions of the players.

“But my Bengaluru FC team became ISL champions for a reason. We were ready to play through extra-time and other teams got red cards in that period. This was something I was teaching to my Bengaluru FC team in the past, to keep their emotions in check and it is something I hope to teach to my players at East Bengal,” he ended with.

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