Jose Molina unravels foreign players’ strategy before Bengaluru FC trip

The Mariners will be looking for their second win on the bounce.

Mohun Bagan Super Giant play their first away match of the 2024-25 Indian Super League (ISL) season when they face a high-flying Bengaluru FC side at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Saturday (28th September). The Mariners have wind in their sails after a thrilling win over NorthEast United FC and will be pushing to get some match-winning momentum by getting their second straight victory.

Jose Molina on foreign player strategy

Jose Molina has hinted that star forward Jamie Maclaren is getting better & better in terms of attaining 100% match fitness. Once he does, it’ll pose a challenging task for Molina in terms of selecting which foreign players would start for Mohun Bagan in the ISL.

Ahead of the Bengaluru FC clash, Molina spoke about his foreign players strategy and Maclaren’s situation, explaining, “He’s (Jamie’s) getting better every day with his fitness. He helped in the last match by coming from the bench and playing 15 minutes. He couldn’t score but I’m happy with him and he’s working really hard to be with the starting eleven at his 100% as soon as possible. We all know he’s a great player, but it’s not easy to play in the Mohun Bagan attacking line because we have Greg, Dimi, Jason in their as competition. It’s difficult to play with four forwards or strikers.

“That is not the best plan, because we need defenders and midfielders to create the action. I’m really happy to have all the foreigners in the squad, we have different options and I’ll try to put the bet options for every match as possible. The good thing is we have on the bench someone who can come on and score, like Jason last match, as he started from the bench and scored after coming from the bench.”

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“Both he and Jamie had chances to score, and that is very important for the coach and the players – to have players from the bench who can help, come for the last 30-20 minutes or five minutes to help the team, score goals and maybe win the match like Jason did in the last game,” he added.

On Mohun Bagan’s style of play

Jose Molina also insisted that he wants Mohun Bagan to keep the same style of play irrespective of whether they’re playing at home or away, as he stated, “It’s the same for me. It doesn’t matter whether we play at home or away. All the matches are the same. I want my team to play in the same way, doesn’t matter where against whom or in which competition we play in. I want my team with personality, ambition, and trying to compete and dominate games, and that doesn’t matter where we’ll play.”

“There is no difference in terms of if we play at home or away. Of course, always it’s good to play at home because we have our home support and we can’t have that in Bengaluru. But on the pitch, it’s an 11v11 players game and it will be a case of Mohun Bagan trying to win and play the best possible football,” Molina also quipped.

Mohun Bagan picked up a dominant 4-0 win over Bengaluru FC in their trip to the Kanteerava Stadium last season. But they won’t have it that easy against the current, in-form Bengaluru side and need to produce their best performance to end their winning run.

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