East Bengal’s left-back problem continues to haunt their ISL 2025-26 campaign

East Bengal FC’s winless run extends to three games

East Bengal FC have seen their Indian Super League (ISL) 2025-26 campaign go from bad to worse after a highly impressive start. Despite having won their first two games of the campaign in style, the Red & Gold Brigade have now only picked up two points from the previous three matches and plummeted away from the title race.

Oscar Bruzon’s side have only scored two goals in the previous three matches and frustrated fans with some underwhelming display.

One problem that has now persisted since the 2024-25 campaign is in terms of how East Bengal FC continue to struggle to find a reliable left-back who can secure that position for them week in, week out.

Five matches into the ISL 2025-26 campaign and Bruzon have already tried three different players in the left-back position in his East Bengal FC side.

Jay Gupta, who was signed from FC Goa before the start of the campaign, has not really met up to the standards which the coach wants for his side to perform at their highest level.

Unfortunately, their problems in finding an established left-back are starting to hurt East Bengal FC. It’s not like a left-back is demanded to score crucial goals, but it remains a pivotal part of the team and East Bengal FC are starting to face the strains of not having a reliable option in that position.

Here, we look at how the left-back problem is continuing to hold back East Bengal in the 2025-26 ISL campaign.

Lack of attacking threat

Even though the priority for full-backs is of course to look into the defensive side of things, the modern full-back is compelled to have some qualities of contributing to the attack.

Unfortunately for East Bengal, they’re getting very little help from their full-backs and that is especially viable for the left-back position.

Be it Jay Gupta, Lalchungnunga or even PV Vishnu – there seems to be very little threat arriving from their overlapping left-back. The East Bengal left-back’s have, anyhow, not looked the more courageous in terms of making attacking contribution and they’ve also been quite underwhelming in instances where they did find themselves in the attacking areas.

The left-back at East Bengal doesn’t tend to create any major chances or pose a big threat to the opponent, who can breathe easy on that wing knowing that it wouldn’t be overloaded.

The lack of support from the full-backs has seen the majority of creative burden fall into the likes of Miguel Ferreira and Bipin Singh, who have started being targeted and tightly marked by opposition players – causing East Bengal’s attacking threat to be lowered in recent games.

Build-up play problem

Because Oscar Bruzon has tended to switch around his options so many times in the 2025-26 ISL in terms of his left-back position, there has been a lack of consistency in their playing style when having to use that position.

The Red & Gold Brigade have looked more comfortable in possession of the ball this season, but that has mostly been credited to the work of a few individuals.

They have had their struggles in terms of their flow through the left wing when it comes to moving the ball from the backline to the frontline. East Bengal hasn’t really looked the most comfortable in working on their build-up play through the left-wing, mostly because their left-back options haven’t gotten enough playing time to get accustomed to the system properly.

Lalchungnunga, in particular, has looked clunky in the left-back role and struggled to provide much going forward. Jay Gupta and PV Vishnu might both be natural left-footers, but even they’ve not had enough time to be able to learn their teammates’ movement pattern and then build-up attacking moves through the left-wing.

This has caused the Red & Gold Brigade to become reliant on their build-up play through different areas, making them a bit predictable to read.

Pressure on Bipin Singh

A victim of East Bengal’s problematic situation with left-backs is definitely their assigned left-winger, Bipin Singh.

To his credit, the experienced Indian winger has actually had a pretty good start to the 2025-26 ISL campaign – as he shone in their first two matches and has looked like a viable threat in their previous few games as well.

However, Bipin is often being invariably asked to do too many things on the left-wing – which often impacts his execution in the final third.

Because of the lack of proper overlapping full-backs on his side, Singh is often had to do everything by himself in looking to dribble past defenders, get into the danger zones before looking to send in threatening crosses.

Not just that, but Singh is also having to work extra hard with his recovery work in tracking back into the defense to help his left-back to stop attacking moves. All that wear and tear is putting way too much pressure on Bipin, who is having to sacrifice his natural game at times for the benefit of his teammates.

Unless East Bengal FC are able to find a solution to their left-back issue by deploying a reliable, proactive player in that role consistently – the pressure will continue to rise on Bipin and result in him getting frustrated as well.

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.