Five challenges Antonio Lopez Habas will face at Mohun Bagan Super Giant

Antonio Lopez Habas was serving as the technical director of Mohun Bagan.

Mohun Bagan Super Giant are poised for a major change of direction at the start of 2024 with head coach Juan Ferrando being replaced by Antonio Lopez Habas, who was serving as the technical director. Ferrando was let go after a string of poor results in the Indian Super League (ISL) last month and an early elimination from the AFC Cup group stages.

Habas has plenty of experience managing in the ISL, having guided the erstwhile ATK to two titles in the past and also managing the ATK Mohun Bagan side. He returns to management in India after a two-year spell and will now manage a completely different set of players with the Mariners.

The 66-year-old comes with a lot of experience under his belt and will manage a team of experienced individuals, but still faces a number of challenges against a team slightly in disarray. Here look at the five challenges Habas faces at Mohun Bagan.

5. Improve set-piece threat

Mohun Bagan SG have a lot of quality in terms of players who can headers and from set-pieces but have seldomly shown that this season. They’ve only scored a few goals from set-piece situations, being especially wasteful on corners. It’s perhaps time for Habas to sort that out and he needs to re-establish their set-piece routines.

Habas will need to ensure that the Mariners are more clinical in finishing away chances, organizing their shape better in the set-pieces to ensure that they can win the key duels inside the box. He probably needs to get Dimitri Petratos back into taking all the corners because of his efficiency and for the defensive players to get at the end of chances better than they have.

4. Discipline the players

A major issue that has crept up at Mohun Bagan is how temperamental the players have become in matches. They tend to pick up way more yellow and red cards than before, having three players sent off in the loss to Mumbai City last month.

Habas needs to ensure that his team is less aggressive with their approach and more disciplined in terms of the tackles they make or how they commit them into challenges. He has to bring more composure among his side, so that they can control games better without having the risk of having players sent off.

3. Accommodating foreign forwards into the same system

Habas will be pleased with the depth in his Mohun Bagan squad and the quality of the foreign players in his disposal too. But, with there now being a capped rule on the usage of foreign players in the ISL, he obviously can’t use them all together.

If he plays both foreign defenders, then Habas can only play a few foreign forwards. That means he might have to bench the likes of Armando Sadiku, Hugo Boumous, Jason Cummings or Dimitri Petratos in certain games.

It’ll be a challenge for the Spaniard to create a system that helps accommodate all the foreign forwards and get the best out of them. He needs to ensure that all of them are firing on all cylinders and rotate them smartly to ensure that tensions don’t build up. If he can do that, then Habas can get the Mariners to play at their best ability too.

2. Stick to one system

A possible reason behind things going wrong under Ferrando over the last few games was that he started tinkering with his formation. At the start of the campaign, Mohun Bagan mostly played with a four-man backline.

Then suddenly, Ferrando changed to a three-man backline to suit the forward players and then again changed back to a four-man defence later on. All these changes confused the players and impacted their momentum too.

Habas has to identify one particular system that is perfect for his players. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 3-5-2 formation or an attacking 4-4-3 one, but the Mariners need to stick with one pattern of play rather than changing things around. It’ll be tough for the Spaniard to identify the ‘perfect’ system, but doing so can help Mohun Bagan start winning games consistently again.

1. Prove doubters wrong on playing style

The appointment of Antonio Habas into the role of Mohun Bagan’s new head coach attracted criticism from some fans, because of concerns over his playing style. A lot of fans believe that the Mariners will now play a regressive, defensive form of football that will stop players from expressing themselves properly.

Habas’ biggest challenge is probably to prove his doubters wrong on this aspect. Indeed, the Spaniard needs to show that he can get the players to play attractive, clinical attacking football – all while also maintaining an impenetrable defensive shape too.

He needs to allow them freedom with their build-up play and create chances with crisp passing moves rather than a long-ball or set-piece-heavy game. If he can do that then Habas will validate the decision to have him replace Ferrando midway into the campaign.

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