Can Miguel Ferreira & Youssef Ezzejjari lead East Bengal FC's ISL title charge?

East Bengal FC are the league leaders of ISL 2025-26

East Bengal FC have enjoyed a splendid start to their 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) campaign, winning their first two matches in dominant fashion. Inheriting positive energy from their devoted supporters at the Salt Lake Stadium, the Red & Gold Brigade have scored seven goals and conceded only one goal – bursting their way to the top of the table.

In a 13-game season, even winning two consecutive matches can be a mark of real progression. It’s clear that East Bengal FC have come a long way from their struggles last season to becoming the well-oiled machine Oscar Bruzon envisioned since arriving at the club.

The impact of their new signings has been immense, especially that of forward Youssef Ezzejjari and midfielder Miguel Ferreira.

The foreigner duo has significantly uplifted the quality of East Bengal’s attacking style and are helping them play some highly enjoyable football. Ezzejjari, who only arrived at the club shortly before the start of the 2025-26 ISL campaign, has shown incredible adaptability to become a force to be reckoned with in the ISL – having four goals in two matches already!

Ferreira, on the other hand, is arguably playing a more influential role in terms of being the heartbeat of East Bengal’s build-up play. At a time when skipper Naorem Mahesh Singh is recovering from injury, everything seems to go through the Brazilian to cause misery to the opponents.

Having won the first two matches in such compelling fashion, East Bengal fans cannot be blamed for dreaming of a genuine title charge in the 2025-26 ISL. In fact, they’ll pin a lot of their hopes on the Ferreira-Ezzejjari duo to empower their way to a first-ever ISL championship.

However, East Bengal will need certain things to go their way and a few elements to work ideally for them to actually strongly challenge for the title and potentially winning it. Here we look at how they can get the best out of the Ferreira-Ezzejjari combination to enable them to consistently win matches for them.

Patience with Miguel Ferreira and Youssef Ezzejjari

Ferreira and Ezzejjari have both had amazing starts to their ISL careers. The Brazilian has two goals and as many assists in the first two games, with Ezzejjari also bagging four goals. They have come up with the goods for the Red & Gold Brigade in the first two matches, but there might be moments going forward when things don’t click so perfectly for the duo.

There might be a few games when the Brazilian midfielder and Spanish forward are marked so tightly that they struggle to command a game. They might miss chances or fail to create opportunities as fans have seen in the first two matches. There is a need to be patient with the duo and let them play freely in the final third.

Ferreira can be a bit frustrating with misplaced passes at times because he likes experimenting in creating chances. If he’s dissuaded from doing that, it’ll knock him off his natural game. Ezzejjari has yet to create any major chances, and piling on more responsibilities on him could cause him to lose his prolific final touch.

There is need for the East Bengal staff and fans to be patient with the influential duo. They need to keep being encouraged to take risks and do stuff that is out-of-the-box.

If they are able to stay confident in playing their natural game, both Ferreira and Youssef should keep tormenting opponents and be unpredictable forces for East Bengal.

Support from teammates

East Bengal might’ve inherited a deadly duo in Youssef Ezzejjari and Miguel Ferreira, but they cannot simply rely on them to march them onto success in every single match. Even though the two players have received utmost freedom to cause damage to opponents in the first two matches, the future matches will see opposition sideline themselves up to look to neutralize their threat.

That means the East Bengal side cannot just rely on passing the ball to Miguel or Youssef and automatically hope for magic to happen. The two players need to be supported by those around them to maximize their threat in matches throughout the 2025-26 ISL campaign.

The likes of Bipin Singh, Edmund Lalrindika, Mohammed Rashid and even the full backs have to be more proactive to ensure Miguel and Youssef aren’t isolated by strict marking going forward.

These players need to be smart with their movement, link-up play and work in the final third to ensure the opposition players cannot gang up on the Brazilian midfielder or Spanish forward and are forced to get out of their comfort zone.

Football is a team game where it takes the entire team to ensure that some top-performing individuals can maintain consistency at the top. For East Bengal, it’ll be a case for their entire attacking unit operating as a slick, smooth-running operation to ensure consistent success and add more goal numbers for Ezzejjari and Ferreira.

Need to turn up in big games

Even though Youssef Ezzejjari and Miguel Ferreira have been highly impressive in the first two matches of the 2025-26 ISL for East Bengal, the biggest challenges still wait for them. The Red & Gold Brigade have matches lined up against some major ISL teams like FC Goa, Mumbai City, Bengaluru FC, Jamshedpur FC and of course – Mohun Bagan SG!

For them to dream about winning the 2025-26 ISL championship, they will need to attain maximize points from these major games. Hence, they need their duo of Miguel Ferreira-Youssef Ezzejjari to turn up big in these particular matches as well.

The Brazilian midfielder, to his credit, did prove himself as a big-game player in the cup competitions earlier this season – especially in the Super Cup!

Ezzejjari will need to adapt himself well to these big match scenarios and prove his ruthless instincts against sturdy defensive shapes. He’ll need to be particularly prolific inside the box and finish off chances clinically in these games, because the tight nature of these matches mean chances might not come as freely as they have in recent ones.

Ferreira also needs to prove how influential he can be by being a driving force for East Bengal against top-quality opposition, using his energetic forward runs and creativity to set up big chances and unlock mean opposition backlines.

Of course, the foreigner duo will need those around them to be on top of their game and be smart with their movement to unlock free space for Youssef and Miguel to move into in the major ISL games.

However, if Ferreira and Ezzejjari are able to reserve their best for these kinds of major ISL matches – they can definitely be major contenders in the 2025-26 ISL title race.

Miguel and Youssef might’ve had a dream start to their ISL campaign, but they need to preserve their best for the business end of the campaign for East Bengal to have a strong challenge to be genuine title challengers and finally break their two-decade-long drought of winning a league championship.

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