Three things Antonio Habas must improve to strengthen East Bengal's push to win 2026-27 ISL title

Red & Gold won their 17th Durand title under Lopez Habas

Antonio Habas has had an inspired start to his career as East Bengal head coach, as he guided them to some notable achievements in his first few months in the job. Firstly, the Spanish gaffer utilised his experience to inspire the Torchbearers to comprehensively defeat Al-Arabi SC to win their 2026-27 AFC Champions League Two Qualifier clash, despite only having a few foreign players to use in the clash.

Amidst their heroics in the Asian clash, Habas was also able to keep East Bengal going strongly in the 2026 Durand Cup. He saw them push their way to the final to face rivals Mohun Bagan, who had defeated them in the group stages of the competition. Here, the Spanish gaffer was able to pull one over his former employers – guiding East Bengal to a dominant 4-1 win to clinch their first piece of silverware under him.

However, the season is only in its early phases, and there are still MANY games to play for the Torchbearers under the Spanish gaffer. Even though he has inspired some improvements in their game and has shaped them to maintain a compact, flexible shape that enables them to play some exciting attacking football. However, East Bengal are still in the early stages of their stint under Habas, and the Spanish gaffer is aware that there are still some improvements to be made for his side to tap into their most efficient shape under him.

With the Indian Super League (ISL) campaign moving closer, the Red & Gold Brigade will be determined to defend their title successfully and prove they can dominate in a regular league campaign as well. Here, we look at the three things that Antonio Habas must improve to strengthen East Bengal’s push to win the 2026-27 ISL title.

3. Better creative threat through the midfield

East Bengal have played some really entertaining attacking football in their few matches under Habas so far, but there has been a threat of a slightly repeated pattern being created in their attacking moves. They seem to be quite focused on creating chances using their wide areas, moving the ball forward into the final third using their wingers before sending in inviting passes into the box for the forwards to pounce on.

That is definitely an effective strategy, but East Bengal needs to look to bring more variety to their attacking style to make it more unpredictable and ensure they don’t get found out by opposition teams.

Habas needs to work harder on allowing East Bengal to move the ball better through the central areas, ensuring that his midfielders can win the midfield battle and impose more creative authority through the central positions.

He needs the likes of Dani Ramirez and Mohammed Rashid to step up in creating more open-play chances from the central areas, nailing their through balls or quick forward passes to spot their forwards in prime goal-scoring positions to enhance East Bengal’s overall goal threat.

2. Stronger defending in the wide areas

While East Bengal have been defensively pretty good under Habas so far, managing to keep four clean sheets in the 2026 Durand Cup, there were a few signs of possible vulnerabilities spotted in their few matches so far as well. The Red & Gold Brigade have arguably the best Indian centre-back in the country in Anwar Ali, with new signing Sandeep Mandi also performing well in the Durand Cup.

However, the Red & Gold Brigade aren’t exactly that compelling when having to defend against tricky teams who tend to create the majority of their chances through the wide areas.

While Jay Gupta and Hardik Bhatt did produce some decent performances in the first few games under Habas, there is a need for East Bengal to add more reliability to their defending through wide areas. They need their full-backs to be sharper in cutting out opposition wingers and restricting the number of crosses that are sent into the box.

East Bengal cannot rely on their centre-backs or goalkeeper to bail them out all the time with key clearances or saves, and that is why they need to be tighter in defending through the wide areas. Perhaps the wingers should be compelled to drop back to help their full-backs defend better, but East Bengal need to be more effective in defending to restrict the opposition’s flow through the wings going forward.

1. Set-piece efficiency

East Bengal might’ve played some really promising attacking football under Antonio Habas at the Durand Cup and ACL Two qualifier, but one area of vulnerability that was noticed in those performances was their lack of impact from set-pieces. The Red & Gold Brigade were not really able to score all that much from corners or indirect free-kicks, being especially poor in failing to convert set-pieces in their Durand Cup semi-final against SC Delhi.

Habas is definitely an admirer of ‘balance’ in his side’s playing style, and he’d probably have been worried by his side’s lack of threat from set-pieces.

East Bengal need to be much more dangerous from their set-pieces, with the likes of Dani Ramirez and Mohammed Rashid probably having to work hard in launching more inviting crosses into the middle that can meet their teammates in prime areas.

Unless East Bengal can start scoring more goals from set-pieces, that will become an Achilles Heel in their game and can become a factor that holds them back from failing to convert a few draws into wins.

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