Any team can beat another in the ISL, says Carles Cuadrat before Odisha FC game

Carles Cuadrat also spoke of the refereeing in the ISL.

East Bengal will be aiming to end their 2023 on a high note with a win over an in-form Odisha FC side at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on Friday (December 22). The Red & Gold Brigade have picked up form as of late and come into this game after a hard-fought draw against Mumbai City.

Cuadrat confident of his team ahead of Odisha FC clash

Carles Cuadrat believes that his side is strong enough to deal with Odisha’s possesional style and set-piece threat, as he said: “We take every game in a different plan and have a different match-plan for every game. So tomorrow we’ll have a different approach to the game than the one we had against Mumbai.

“We also know that they are very dangerous in set-pieces, so we have been working on trying to defend well in corners and free kicks. So far, we have been a good team in terms of defending set-pieces, but not in scoring. I hope that our plan in that aspect works tomorrow,” he added.

Can East Bengal’s backline frustrate the Odisha attackers?

The tactician is also confident that East Bengal can defeat any ISL side and that his defence can also hold their own against the likes of Roy Krishna or Ahmed Jahouh. He explained: “I think that any team can beat any other team in this league. So honestly I think that we can. All the games so far, we’ve come very close to getting a result. Sometimes we’ve won by a goal and sometimes we’ve lost by a goal. That means that we are competing. Every game is different but until now we’ve been solid in stopping very good forwards and very good attacking midfielders.”

“We’ve stopped the combination of Greg Stewart and Jorge Diaz in the last game, which was a very good combination. So now the challenge is to do the same with Jahouh-Krishna, Jahouh-Mauricio or the three of them together. We’ve been working in our way to play the game and the team is improving tactically. It takes time to adjust new players into situations, but in the end, work pays off and the team has been getting consistency in results lately,” he added.

Important of home advantage

Carles Cuadrat is eager for his side to take the home-ground advantage and praised the fans’ role this season. He said: “I always want to take advantage of the love the home supporters give to us. We want to take advantage to play at home. We can be positive about a lot of things happening this season. We’ve gotten many better results this season at home than we got before last summer. If you see ISL before the summer break, East Bengal played five home games at home from January to the end of last season and only won one game. It was only one win in five games.”

“But since our project, we’ve played a lot of games at home at the Durand Cup and ISL and have only lost against Kerala Blasters in the ISL and against Mohun Bagan in the Durand Cup final. That means we are enjoying the relationship with the fans and they are helping us a lot. It is important for the fans to create that nice atmosphere between the players and the supporters and I feel we are building on that. We know that if we give everything to the fans, they are going to give back more than 100%,” he added.

Competitiveness with Lobera and Odisha FC challenge

The mentor also opened up on his friendly competition with Odisha head coach Sergio Lobera after boasting an impressive head-to-head record against him. He said: “We are friends. We’ve been working together at Barca 20 years ago. We have a lot of respect for each other. Of course, he’ll try to get his side to win and I’ll try to win. The past is the past. This is two completely different teams we are managing. We are both in a new situation and are in new projects. Let’s see how is the game going tomorrow.”

When asked if he feels that Odisha FC are the toughest opponent that any ISL team can face right now, Carles Cudrat said: “It’s a wonderful season that there are a lot of very good teams and very good top coaches. I have a lot of respect for all our opponents. You can see every game is a challenge. A few days ago against Punjab some people were criticizing us becouse we unfortunately couldn’t break their defensive mindset, but later on then Punjab defeated Chennaiyin 1-0. Any team can beat any other, there is a lot of competitiveness in ISL.”

He added, “⁠Odisha come to the game on an eight-game unbeaten streak in all competitions and has only drawn one out of the eight, which means seven victories and four clean sheets in that duration too. It’ll be a very, very difficult game. We will be pushing for a win, I won’t be satisfied with a draw. Our dream is to get to the playoffs so we have to win games.”

The refereeing issues in ISL

Finally, Carles Cuadrat opened up on his thoughts on the quality of refereeing in the ISL after the Mumbai City vs Mohun Bagan game saw so many sending-offs. He said: “I’ve been involved in ISL from season four. We all know we have a problem with the officiating. VAR could help a lot in making games easier. I respect referees’ job, all of us can be confused, it’s not easy to make decisions very fast. But the TV reviews help a lot with penalties, red cards and offside goals.”

“With the ‘key decisions’ how they call. It’s a problem that will keep going until VAR arrives. If you see the Champions League or top European games, the referees are very calm because they have a back cover. They can change decissions. The Indian referees have to make decisions in one second and there is nothing that helps them. They are taking a lot of pressure and all completely all the teams are unhappy, so it’s not like they are favoring one team or like that. East Bengal are unhappy because of all the penalties we have not been awarded this season, a lot of handball situations that we should’ve gotten in a lot of games. Against Jamshedpur, Bengaluru, Punjab or even last game against Mumbai have been opponent’s hand balls in their penalty area that referees are whistling in other games in this league. So yes, we have not been lucky with the ‘key decisions’ until now.”

“Referee’s mistakes happens all over the world. But that can change with VAR because they can change the decisions on TV reviews. Until we don’t get VAR, in comparison with other leagues, we will have more difficult situations to manage. This is a call that coaches have been asking for, but it looks that the plan is going to take two more seasons to implement so we have to be patient. I wish luck to the referees because they’ll be under pressure all the time because that is how football works. I feel like a solution could be to bring in foreign referees for some special games as they do in the Saudi Pro League and others. But I also respect that Indian referees deserve to win their salary and do their work, so it’s difficult to manage. Anyway…we wish that referees won’t have to make too many ‘key decisions’ tomorrow,” Carles Cuadrat concluded.

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