ISL 2025-26: Kerala Blasters FC season review

A season of ups and downs for the Blasters as they finish eighth in the league table

Kerala Blasters FC saw one of their most topsy-turvy seasons so far in Indian Super League history. Despite starting the season with a completely revamped squad and a new manager in the truncated league, the performance of the Blasters has gone downhill and failed to meet the expectations of the fans and the club yet again remains trophyless after 12 long years.

Despite starting the season in disaster, struggling to fetch points and facing the verge of relegation, the Blasters came into full vigour since gameweek six.

With 17 points in 13 games, the team ended the season in the 8th position of the league table, 9 points behind the league champions East Bengal.

While the season has had a lot of ups and downs, under the managers David Catala and Ashley Westwood, in this article we look deep into the top performers, top performances, managerial report, fans’ views and learning lessons from this season.

Kerala Blasters FC’s performance in ISL 2025-26

Top performers

Ebindas Yesudasan

Ebindas has been the brightest spark for the Blasters in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2025-26 season. Ebindas, who was a regular starter in the Tuskers reserve side, rose through the ranks and was promoted to the senior team ahead of the ISL season.

Even though Ebindas’ performance was not up to par with expectations in the initial matches, with time, he became one of the most lethal midfield weapons of the Blasters. Ebindas has always stepped up to the occasion and delivered his best whenever the team demanded it from him.

His first contribution came in the match against Inter Kashi, where his pinpoint free kick helped Bertemou register the first goal for the Blasters in the season. Later, in their match against the champions East Bengal FC, Ebindas yet again delivered a brilliant set-piece to secure the equaliser and earn the Blasters their first point.

Later, in their southern derby match against Bengaluru FC, Ebindas was at his best, completely outplaying the Blues and providing two crucial assists that sealed their first-ever victory at the Kanteerava Stadium. In their home game against Odisha FC, a late corner from Ebindas was headed in by Matias, helping the Blasters win a late-minute thriller.

With 5 assists to his name, Ebindas ended the season as the player with the most assists provided. With excellent pace, mastery of his skills, and good game awareness, Ebindas, with proper game time and experience, is expected to deliver more for the club in the coming years and could probably be one of the strong midfield options in the national team.

Ndiaye Fallou

Ndiaye Fallou has arguably been one of the best players for the Blasters this season. The 24-year-old came in as a replacement for Oumar Bah midway through the season. Ever since his arrival, Fallou has played a crucial role in bringing compactness and defensive maturity to the Kerala Blasters’ backline.

Standing tall at 1.98 metres, the defender also provided Blasters with aerial dominance whenever opponents create potential threats with set pieces.

Along with his defensive duties, he has also ventured deep into the attacking third during set-pieces to exploit the opponent’s defensive unit with his towering height and physical dominance, and this has paid dividends for the team.

Fallou had an uncanny ability to put the opponents under pressure during corners and long throw-ins inside the box, and this saw him score two vital goals for the team, and another attempt led to an own goal from the opponent, providing Blasters with some vital points and helping them to end the season on a positive note.

Underperformer of the season

Marlon Roos Trujillo

Marlon Roos Trujillo, the attacking midfielder from Germany, has been the underperformer of the season. A former Germany U-17 player with decent experience in European football came to the Blasters as a replacement for their captain, Adrian Luna, who was loaned out from Kerala Blasters to the Indonesian league.

Despite having high expectations for the player, he was unable to deliver his best performance in the yellow threads.

In the six matches the player played, he failed to create any meaningful impact for the team and was later deregistered from the squad after the red card he accumulated in the match against Punjab FC.

Top performances of the season

Kerala Blasters FC 3-1 Mohammedan SC

Kerala Blasters FC 2-0 Jamshedpur FC

Kerala Blasters FC 2-1 Bengaluru FC

Kerala Blasters FC 2-1 FC Goa

Managerial report

The Blasters started their season with the Spanish gaffer David Catala, who, despite displaying a decent performance in the Super Cup, turned out to be a complete disappointment coming into the ISL. In their six matches under the gaffer, he was only able to fetch a single point out of the possible 18 points.

Catala was constantly criticised by the fans and experts for not having a proper plan and for his struggle to find the best eleven for every game.

Under him, the team was glued to the bottom of the table, on the verge of relegation. Following this disappointing record, the club mutually parted ways with him, ahead of the international break in late March.

However, what followed was one of the biggest turnarounds for the Blasters in ISL history. Post the international break, the Tuskers appointed Ashley Westwood and former ISL winner Peter Hartley as their head coach and assistant coach, respectively and since then, there has been no looking back for the men in yellow.

Even though he started with a loss against SC Delhi, in the final away match against Bengaluru FC, his former side, the Tuskers registered their first victory of the season, and from then on, the Blasters’ rise from their ruins began.

After a draw against NorthEast United at home, the team registered four consecutive victories to end the season on a positive note.

Under the helm of Ashley, the Blasters registered 16 points in seven games. With a point per game of 2.28, the team ended their campaign as the in-form team, with the most points accumulated after gameweek six.

Also Read: ISL 2025-26: Jamshedpur FC season review

Lessons learned from the season

One of the major drawbacks for the team this season was the lack of a proper foreign roster. After parting ways with Koldo Obieta, Tiago Alves, Juan Rodriguez, Dusan Lagator and loaning out Noah Sadoui and Adrian Luna, the Blasters had zero foreign players from the previous season for the ISL.

Ahead of the ISL, all of them were replaced with players of a rather lower quality, who failed to display a benchmark performance. This turned out to be a big problem for the club as replacements for these players had to be made mid-season as their quality was not up to the standards.

Secondly, David Catala’s appointment backfired for the Blasters. The manager was constantly criticised by fans, ex-KBFC players, and other experts for lacking a proper game plan and failing to utilise the squad effectively.

Despite the league allowing four foreign players to be in the playing eleven at a time, Catala rarely used the full potential of his foreigners, and this led to the team dropping points.

Thirdly, the team lacked quality Indian players and backups. Proper replacements were not made for players who left the club, like Azhar, Aimen, Amey Ranawade and more.

This hurt the team a lot. Additionally, the lack of proper preseason preparation also hampered the team’s performance. The team only started giving consistent results from April, one month after the league started.

Had the team gone for at least a month long preseason than the last minute pre season, the team would have had a different position in the league table.

Fan’s view

The ISL 2025-26 season saw one of the largest-scale protest from the Blasters fans. Even though the fans used to criticise the management for their sporting decisions, this is the first time that the fans have taken measures like boycotting the matches.

In the first home game of the season, the attendance was 16,243. However, citing the poor form of the team, the attendance kept dropping, and in the match against Punjab FC, the team registered one of their lowest-ever attendances in ISL history of 2863.

Fan groups like Manjappada and the Blasters Army boycotted the matches, and fans stopped watching the matches even on broadcast unless the demands of the fans were fulfilled by the team.

The Fan Advisory Board (FAB), which was deemed a revolutionary step by the club management for ensuring transparency between the fans and the club, also did not go as planned.

The Fan Advisory Board came up with five non-negotiable demands, including parting ways with the Sporting Director and the CEO of the club. Stating that there was no accountability and that proper actions taken from the side of management, the members of the FAB resigned before the season ended.

Later, the fans started to come back to the stadium following the positive results under Ashley Westwood, and the final home game of the season recorded a total attendance of 13,517.

Despite the attendance increasing in the later phase of the season, fan groups continue their protest unless and until proper actions are taken by the management.

What’s next for Kerala Blasters FC?

Kerala Blasters will have to do some extensive work if they want to return to their glory days. One of the key decisions they will have to make is whether to move forward with Ashley Westwood.

Following that, they must bring in a Sporting Director to take over the place of Karolis Skinkys, who left the club, post the ISL 2025-26 season.

Once the manager and the sporting director are decided, the team should recruit strong international players who have excelled in their previous clubs and bring in a winning mentality and hunger into the club. Along with this, they should strengthen their Indian contingent and bring in some experienced players to lead the side and also work on improving the bench strength, which the team critically lacks now.

The management should now take some strong actions to restore the faith among the fans and prevent any sort of boycotts in the future.

A proper preseason, quality players with a winning mentality and a more strategic approach are necessary to ensure they don’t repeat this disastrous class.

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