ISL 2025-26: Mohun Bagan SG season review

The Mariners finished second on the ISL table

Mohun Bagan SG experienced a frustrating end to their Indian Super League (ISL) 2025-26 campaign, as they lost the title race to East Bengal due to an inferior goal difference. The Mariners saw their reign as the last two ISL champions snapped by their rivals, with their inconsistency and inability to kill off games coming back to haunt them at the end of the 2025-26 ISL campaign.

The Mariners made a drastic change to their coaching set-up before the ISL campaign, with Jose Molina being replaced by Sergio Lobera.

The Spanish gaffer tried his best to help the Mariners win another title despite a drastic change to their playing style, but witnessed them ultimately come up short in the title race.

Even though Mohun Bagan SG did have some memorable performances in the campaign and produced some entertaining football, they ended up buckling under the pressure of the title race to allow East Bengal to win the championship.

After having recorded all sorts of amazing feats in the 2024-25 ISL (when they won the ISL double), all those feats came to nought as they struggled to defend their title successfully and ended up letting East Bengal run away with it.

It turned out to be an underwhelming campaign for Mohun Bagan SG, who went through the season without any trophies.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Khel Now (@khelnow)

Here, we look at the season review for what was a chaotic 2025-26 ISL campaign for the Kolkata giants.

Mohun Bagan SG’s performance in ISL 2025-26

Number of Games Played: 13

League Position: 2nd

Wins: 7

Draws: 5

Losses: 1

Total Goals Scored (GF): 23

Total Goals Conceded (GA): 9

Overall Points: 26

Top performers

Jamie Maclaren

Jamie Maclaren was able to maintain his good form for Mohun Bagan SG in the 2025-26 ISL campaign, turning up for them in many matches to help them bag important points.

The Australian forward scored 10 goals in 13 appearances in the 2025-26 ISL, which included a four-goal-haul against Odisha FC – as well as important goals in wins over Punjab FC, SC Delhi and Kerala Blasters!

Maclaren might not have been just as consistent as the Mariners fans would’ve wanted him to be, but he was still the most prolific attacking player for the Kolkata giants.

He turned up with key goals at regular intervals, making the most of chances even in games where Mohun Bagan struggled at a creative level.

Lalengmawia Ralte

Lalengmawia Ralte (Apuia), was able to adapt himself really well into Sergio Lobera’s possession-heavy system at Mohun Bagan SG in the 2025-26 ISL campaign and played a key role in the majority of their wins.

He helped them dominate possession and control things in midfield, averaging the most passes per 90 minutes (74.6) among all players in the ISL.

The 25-year-old was really consistent in grinding out impressive performances from his deeper midfield role, making 33 defensive contributions and 50 possession recoveries in his nine appearances as well.

Mohun Bagan SG struggled in the games that Apuia was not a part of, only losing one match in which the 25-year-old midfielder played for them in the 2025-26 ISL and winning the majority of them in style.

Vishal Kaith

Even though he didn’t exactly match the highs of the 2024-25 ISL campaign, Vishal Kaith continued proving his importance at Mohun Bagan SG by excelling for them in the 2025-26 edition as well. He ensured that the Mariners had the best defensive record in the league, conceding the fewest goals (9) after the 13 matches.

Vishal also maintained the third-best save percentage (76.9%) among all goalkeepers in the 2025-26 ISL, while he also ket five clean sheets in the 13 matches for the Kolkata giants.

He made crucial saves at regular intervals to preserve his clean sheets and at least ensuring that Mohun Bagan didn’t concede a load of goals consistently.

Underperformer of the season

Jason Cummings

Jason Cummings was just not able to maintain his spark in the Mohun Bagan SG frontline under Sergio Lobera, with his performance-level and overall goal threat being considerably lowered from the previous campaigns.

The Australian forward only scored two goals in his 13 appearances for the Mariners and he was frustrating to watch for many games. Cummings might have scored in the Kolkata derby against East Bengal, but he lacked the consistency to properly support Maclaren in terms of a goal outlet for Mohun Bagan.

Both his goals came as a substitute, with the Australian forward failing to impress in the six starts he got – including a number of crucial missed chances in the final game against SC Delhi.

He failed to be the ruthless striker that helped Mohun Bagan win the last few titles, and that ended up having a big impact on the Mariners’ overall goal threat.

Top performances of the season

• Mohun Bagan SG 5-1 Odisha FC
• Mohun Bagan SG 3-2 Punjab FC
• Mohun Bagan SG 2-0 Kerala Blasters

Managerial report card

Mohun Bagan SG’s management surprised many fans with their decision of letting go of Jose Molina and appointing Sergio Lobera as his replacement before the start of the 2025-26 ISL campaign.

In Lobera, the Mariners got a manager with an extensive knowledge of the ISL and someone who had also won the ISL title at his former sides in Mumbai City FC as well as FC Goa!

However, Lobera’s arrival ended up bringing a plethora of changes to Mohun Bagan SG’s playing style – something that many players ended up being overwhelmed by.

The Spanish gaffer changed their style completely from what they were used to under Molina, with the Mariners being urged to focus more on dominating possession, moving the ball around with a number of passes and trying to tire out their opponents.

That ended having a mixed impact on the Mohun Bagan side. While they controlled more ball possession in matches, the Mariners’ players task to keep a hold of the ball limited the creative freedom they had to take risks and really catch out their opponents by guard.

As the season progressed, Mohun Bagan SG became quite predictable and that caused a major decrease in their goal threat.

After scoring 14 goals in their first four matches of the 2025-26 ISL, the Mariners would only score nine more goals in their remaining nine matches.

The lack of a plan B and Lobera’s inability to get the best out of the players in set-piece really dampened Mohun Bagan SG’s attacking threat. Moreover, he struggled to make the right kind of impactful substitutions and kept changing players to try and get the perfect combination – which never arrived.

In the end, Lobera witnessed Mohun Bagan SG lose the ISL title on the basis of inferior goal difference. The Mariners, who scored 47 goals in 24 ISL matches last season and averaged nearly two-goals per game, only managed 23 goals in 13 ISL matches this time around – out of which 10 were against lower-sides like Mohammedan SC and Odisha FC.

Lobera’s style ended up making Mohun Bagan SG too predictable and his inability to find solutions to their problems saw them come up short to East Bengal – and it remains to be seen whether the Spanish gaffer is even in this role after failing to achieve Mohun Bagan SG’s key objective for the 2025-26 campaign.

Lessons learned from the season

Mohun Bagan SG were made to pay for being slightly complacent in the 2025-26 ISL campaign, as they headed into the competition after having won two straight ISL titles in the previous campaigns.

The Mariners were unable to really bolster their squad from the 2024-25 season, failing to add more unpredictability and fear factor to their game under Lobera.

The Kolkata giants have probably learnt a lesson of how risky it can be to change a manager midway into a campaign, not giving the new boss enough pre-season training period to properly integrate his tactics into the team.

As a result of not knowing Lobera’s system perfectly, Mohun Bagan SG’s performances were marred in inconsistency in the 2025-26 season, and they struggled to find goals to win matches on a regular basis.

Moreover, the lack of variety to the wide areas for Mohun Bagan SG and the absence of a proper, creative no.10 (like Greg Stewart) ended up coming back to haunt the Mariners in the ISL campaign.

Their playing style and areas of creating chances were found out by opponents after the first four game, greatly impacting their goal-scoring capability and tendency to grind out results.

Mohun Bagan SG must realize the need for a deeper squad with more quality options in key areas of the pitch.

They’ll need to work hard in the upcoming transfer window to strengthen many areas of their squad, including the attacking positions, for the Mariners to get back to their dominant best next season and win the championship once again.

Fan’s view

The Mohun Bagan SG fans experienced a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the 2025-26 ISL campaign, which ultimately ended in dismay to miss out on the title on the smallest margins.

However, there seems to be a sense of frustration and disgust among many Mohun Bagan fans – who believe that their squad and management underestimated the challenge of retaining the ISL title this season.

There is also a sense of anger among Mohun Bagan fans over the lack of transfer activity at the club in the 2025 summer window.

With the Mariners only signing a few notable players like Abhishek Singh, Robson Robinho and Kiyan Nassiri, many fans felt that there should’ve been more signings and a better replacement found for Stewart in that no.10 role.

They are demanding for a revamp of the squad in the summer market, replacing some of the underperforming foreign players with fresh, clinical options to take them back to the top.

There are also demands on signing competition for the wide areas as well, to keep the likes of Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh on their toes.

After having failed to win the ISL title for the first time after three years, the Mohun Bagan fans are eager to see their management work hard in the transfer market to build another championship-material squad to take the fight to the opponents next season.

What’s next for Mohun Bagan SG?

Mohun Bagan will be looking for a reset after failing to win a major trophy in the 2025-26 campaign, and some interesting changes could be lying in wait for the Mariners.

There are still questions over whether Sergio Lobera will even be getting the chance to coach the team for a second season, with there being the possibility of him being replaced with someone else.

The Mariners are also likely to be quite busy in the summer transfer window to find replacements for some of their departing players, as well as strengthen the squad with new options.

With the likes of Dimi Petratos, Jason Cummings and possibly even Tom Aldred leaving, they will need to work hard to find replacements for these players and sign quality foreign talents to bolster their squad.

Moreover, Mohun Bagan SG will also look to add more quality to their domestic core of players with a few smart signings. The Mariners’ campaign is likely to start with the Durand Cup in July (2026), and they’ll look to reshape their squad to ensure they can fight for all trophies in a strong manner next season.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.