Oscar Bruzon points at East Bengal's ISL priorities before Mohammedan Sporting clash

East Bengal are reeling at the 11th spot in the ISL table.

Oscar Bruzon’s East Bengal are hoping to get back to winning ways in the Indian Super League (ISL) when they face off against Mohammedan Sporting in a mini-Kolkata derby on Sunday (16 February).

The Red & Gold Brigade’s ISL playoffs hopes are more or less extinguished right now, but they are stilll looking to end the campaign on a high note.

Ahead of the game, Oscar Bruzon spoke about their situation and East Bengal’s current priorities that they want to achieve before the ISL campaign ends. He stated: “In reality, we have a lot of things to do. One thing, almost impossible, is to qualify for the top-6 which was our objective for the start of the season. We have to e realistic, so reaching the top-6 is now very, very difficult. Jumping one position more in ISL, we are in 11th position and six points behind Hyderabad FC.

“We also need to improve the goal average and have five games. At least lets try to jump the standings because if will not be the same for us to finish eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh or twelfth.

“We have been in 12th position ffor a month-and-a-half and if you analyse our last 15 games, you’d see that our average position isn’t that bad. We were in the group of teams fighting for the playoffs in the last 15 games, now we need to look forward on what we need to do in the end of the season. Nobody at East Bengal is happy with our position in the ISL and hopefully finally next season we can be a real contender for fighting for trophies as that is what the club deserves,” he also added.

On injuries and lack of firepower in foreigners

East Bengal have struggled with a lot of injury troubles this season, especially with their foreign players constantly suffering issues, with Madih Talal and Hijazi Maher suffering season-ending injuries.

When asked if he feels that the lack of firepower from the foreigners has badly impacted his side this season, Bruzon explained: “In equal conditions with our rivals, this thing could not be in the situation it is in right now. Unfortunately, we’re suffering a lot of injuries and some players might be inconsistent. But I’m the warrior of the players. We are demanding much more from them, but you can count the games we played with four foreigners, you can count how many foreigners we have on the bench, you can count how many times we substituted one foreigner with another.

“We have limited resources. The point is that being overly critical. There are a lot of factors making our season a nightmare, but we need to learn from that. We need to push and wake up tomorrow thinking how we can get back from this situation. I am optimistic, I feel this team can click but the reality is that we are always playing handicapped. When we play against rivals, we’re ahead in numbers of injuries, lack of foreigners, cards,” he finished off on.

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