Tomorrow is the opportunity to change our dynamic positively, says East Bengal boss Carles Cuadrat

East Bengal head coach Carles Cuadrat also assured that his team will fight well.

East Bengal FC will cross swords with archrivals Mohun Bagan Super Giant at the Salt Lake Stadium on Monday in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2023-24. The Super Cup winners did end a 12-year-old national title draught this year but their form in the league has not improved a lot. Head coach Carles Cuadrat articulated his thoughts regarding the same in front of the media in the pre-match press conference ahead of the derby. 

On how confident he is about the derby after two successive defeats 

East Bengal lost their last match to FC Goa by a gilt-edged margin but were considerably poorer than FC Goa. Earlier they had lost to Odisha by a similar margin. Carles Cuadrat explained their form and confidence regarding the derby as he interestingly observed, “Yeah well, I know that the last few matches we haven’t been getting results but the derby is always a different match.

We can see that in the room it’s crowded, the best in terms of the season. That’s nice, it’s good for football and it’s good for football in the city as well as in the country. I know that my players are going to be very motivated as it’s a special game. Until now we have been getting very good results in all the derbies as we are still unbeaten against Mohun Bagan.

We lost in the Durand Cup but in the Indian Super League, we got a draw in the first round.  Now we know that it’s East Bengal’s first draw against them in the history of the Indian Super League. We’re aware that it’s a challenge as they’re a top team. They are fighting for the league shield and we’re fighting for the sixth position, so we’ll try to get a result,” said Carles.

On whether Mohun Bagan are stronger than the version they faced recently

Historic as the match is and given how strong Mohun Bagan are with their unbeaten run after Antonio Habas’ reappointment, East Bengal might have a faint chance of victory. Yet history has been witness to upsets against the run of play when it comes to the age-old Kolkata Derby.

The tactician once again explained the key to facing their city rivals as he said, “I think that now they are in a new dynamic. They are getting results and when you get results you get momentum. Said momentum, in turn, helps you get the next set of results. So it’s quite similar with all the teams. They have different moments in the season.

In our case, we had a very good run of games in the Durand Cup. Then we had quite a good start to our ISL campaign but then a bad dynamic. After that, we had another purple patch in the Super Cup and now we’re struggling with the results. For Mohun Bagan, it has been quite similar. A mixture of good and bad dynamics. But tomorrow we have the opportunity to change the dynamic positively.

All our game plans against them have worked well this season. Petratos’ finish in the 88th minute in one of those matches was a game-killer. A red card on the other forced us into a more defensive structure, but we were still better organized and created more chances in Mohun Bagan’s box. So, let’s see what kind of game we can have tomorrow,” exclaimed Carles Cuadrat.

On the decision to send Borja Herrera and Javier Siverio out on loans

East Bengal lost a tenacious midfielder and a versatile forward in Herrera and Siverio as they were allowed to leave on a loan basis. However, the head coach explained his team’s vision meticulously as he concluded,

“You think? It’s your opinion? My opinion is that they have played nine and ten games respectively in the ISL. Javier Siverio scored two goals and Borja Herrera scored once and had one assist. So we have to think that out of all the offensive players who we need to make a difference and help us fight for the top places in the league.

We have to see what players can help us the most for that offensive kind of football. It’s true that in the first half of the ISL season, we were missing some numbers in attack. So we tried to find solutions and the solution also included thinking about what we have to do for the next season.

If you see the situation now, you can see that as a club we’re going to play in different competitions. For that, it’s very clear that we need to reinforce our squad if we want to be competitive in all four competitions. So it’s something I always say, that we’re building a project.

Normally you try to get good Indian players that make you a strong team and then you try to bring in foreigners to be competitive. Unfortunately in this plan, suddenly some players get injured and that doesn’t allow us to do things in the direction we were managing.

But these things happen in football. I’m happy that even though this is only the first season, with a team still under construction we have been able to win a trophy, that is going to help us be in Asia. We have been able to be proud of our club against top teams like Mohun Bagan.

I remember in my initial days of appointment when people told me, “Please coach, win the Boro match, win the derby! It’s been four, five years since we won!” So I see in their faces that they are proud because we have won two Boro matches this season. So we will try to win our first Boro match of the ISL season and if that’s not possible I’m sure that the players are going to give everything on the pitch,” asserted Carles Cuadrat.

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