Three ways East Bengal can start getting the best out of Dimitrios Diamantakos

Dimitrios Diamantakos has three goals in 11 appearances this season in ISL.

Dimitrios Diamantakos has fallen into a bit of a slump at East Bengal after excelling for him in the early parts of Oscar Bruzon’s reign. The Greek forward played a significant part in their success in the AFC Challenge League, scoring four goals in three games to get them into the knockout stages.

After that, the 31-year-old also scored winning goals in key victories in the Indian Super League (ISL) over Jamshedpur FC and NorthEast United. Just as it looked like he started to peak, Diamantakos’ performances started dropping. He’s without a goal in the last three games and has looked out of place without proper support around him.

Cleiton Silva hasn’t been able to create much for Diamantakos and the Greek forward is being frustrated in matches, leading to little impact in the frontline. It’s now upon Bruzon & co to help their star forward regain his best form for the final stretch of the season, knowing how Diamantakos’ quality can help torment any side. Here are the ways the Red & Gold Brigade can start getting the best out of Diamantakos.

Calm him down during matches

Diamantakos is the kind of player who tends to get really emotional during the match on the pitch because of how passionate he is about leading his side to victory. In a number of games this season, the 31-year-old’s performance has derailed because of his temperamental nature.

He’s often been frustrated by aggressive defending against him or referees failing to spot fouls or gives decisions in his side’s favour. The state of refereeing is something that neither DIamantakos or East Bengal can directly influence in the ISL. Hence, Bruzon has to help his forward be a calmer person during matches. He needs to ensure that the 31-year-old doesn’t get triggered by opposition trying to put him off his game.

The Greek forward needs to be more focused in the task in hand, which is to help link up smart attacking moves and convert chances. If he can keep his temper in check, being more patient and calmer with his approach, he should start producing better performances.

Get better service for him

The 31-year-old has only scored three goals in 11 appearances for East Bengal this season, after having 13 goals in 17 games in the previous campaign for Kerala Blasters. A key reason behind that is the lack of service that Diamantakos is suffering from with the Kolkata side.

East Bengal’s injury issues and consistency issues have directly impacted their frontline and mellowed down the ruthlessness inside Diamantakos. He’s only had five shots on target in the 2024-25 season, after managing 23 shots on target in the previous campaign. The biggest way to help him is for Bruzon to get the players around Diamantakos to deliver better service to him inside the box.

That would mean he’ll need to urge his players to be more accurate with the kind of crosses whipped into the area so that the Greek forward can pounce on them. Bruzon probably needs to urge his full-backs to be more proactive in making overlapping runs to support the wingers and also help create chances for Diamantakos.

The 31-year-old is a throwback, pure no.9 who at least needs the ball to arrive in his pathway inside the box for him to get things done. He can’t do everything himself, from creating his own chances to finshing them, but Diamantakos’ smart off-the-ball movement and positional sense means he should score many more goals as long as he receives more aid in the box.

Make him stick to the box

The reason why the Greek striker was so clinical for the Kerala Blasters is because he was given the job of just wandering around the final third in the hunt for the best chances. At East Bengal, mostly due to their issues in the attack, Diamantakos has had to tweak his game a little bit and take more responsibilities than what suits him.

He’s often seen dropping way deep into his own midfield line in attempts of helping create stuff or open up mpty spaces for the wingers or midfielders to run into. What this causes is it often results in him not being able to get into the best goal-scoring positions himself, causing chances to be wasted and Diamantakos to grow more frustrated.

With the arrival of Richard Celis, Bruzon can now urge the 31-year-old to stop worrying about the link-up play or chance creation and focus more on his duties in the box. He has to get the Greek striker to be a pure box striker, who lingers around that area and can get past the defender’s marker to work his way into goal-scoring opportunities.

East Bengal needs Diamantakos to get at the end of the crosses or final third passes to enhance their goal-scoring qualities and for him to start scoring goals regularly again.

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