Sergio Lobera encourages Mohun Bagan to regain best form ahead of the Jamshedpur FC clash in ISL 2025-26

Jamshedpur FC will host Mohun Bagan SG at home

Mohun Bagan looks to get back to winning ways in the 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) in style, when they travel to face Jamshedpur FC on Saturday (4 April, 2026). With the Mariners having failed to win their last two matches, they aim to end their winless run against their ISL title challengers and re-establish their push for the ISL title.

Sergio Lobera feels that his team is refreshed after the March (2026) international break, as he stated: “The squad is excited to have a new opportunity. The team and I are excited to have a new opportunity for the Jamshedpur game. When you don’t get the results you want, you want to immediately play your best game. You need to recover your good feelings.

“The Bengaluru FC and Mumbai City games were different; we missed a very good opportunity to open a gap with our title rivals in losing the last game. We need to learn and improve; it’s my job to help improve the mistakes we made in the last game and be ready for the Jamshedpur FC game, which will be tough against a very good opponent,” he added.

Praise for Jamshedpur FC

The Spaniard also gave some praise for the quality of Jamshedpur FC.

He stated, “They are a very good team, and this will be a game between teams with the same number of points, and we have the chance to end the day on top of the table.

“This is a massive game, we’ll play away against a very difficult place to play in. I have great memories from his space, and it’s not easy to play here, but I have a very good squad, and we cannot complain about anything. I’m delighted with the team I have, and we need to improve from the last game and put our best performance against Jamshedpur, who are very good and look to defeat us,” he further stated.

Jamshedpur FC clash a ‘do-or-die’ match for Mohun Bagan?

When asked if this match could be ‘do-or-die’ for Mohun Bagan’s chances of winning the 2025-26 ISL title.

The Spanish gaffer explained: “I think we missed a big opportunity in the last game to create a big gap from the opponents. After losing the game, we allowed Mumbai City to go top of the table. Everything can change quickly because of the short league format, which doesn’t allow many mistakes from us, but all teams can drop points.”

“Tomorrow is a crucial game against a direct opponent, and we’re playing to finish top of the table. We cannot allow too many mistakes from now until the end of the season. We know there are 13 games, we’ve lost five points in the last two games, and we cannot allow many more dropped points in this scenario. All we can do is improve from the last games, and hopefully, we can be ready to compete against a different profile of team in Jamshedpur. We need to be ready for Jamshedpur’s different style of play as compared to Mumbai City,” he also claimed.

Mohun Bagan’s corner woes and national team players reporting late for training

With Mohun Bagan failing to score a goal from 17 corner attempts in their recent 1-0 loss to Mumbai City, Lobera insists that there is need for improvement from set-pieces in his side.

Lobera stated, “In terms of philosophy and style of play, you know mine. My education is in attacking football and having control of the game, dominating the game and keeping the ball possession. But keeping the ball possession means to score goals, because if you finish the game with 75% of the ball possession but the opponent scores more goals than you, that isn’t effective.”

“I don’t want to change the style as I have the profile of a squad to win games playing my way, and we’ve shown that. In terms of set-pieces, the assistant coach works hard on set-pieces, and obviously, we need to improve from corners. In the last game, we got 17 corners and didn’t score from any. Also, the goals we’ve conceded from now on, one was from a set-piece sand we need to improve with that. We need to improve because sometimes you can change the result, and set-pieces can help do that. It’s our target to improve, because you cannot get 17 corners and make it comfortable for opponents to defend that,” he also added.

Lobera was also asked about whether he feels the prospect of Liston Colaco, Manvir Singh, Lalengmawia Ralte and Abhishek Singh returning to his squad late, due to their India commitments, could hamper his side’s preparations for the game.

He replied: “I think as a coach you have to wait always. It’s about trying to find solutions or excuses. We can complain about the schedule, we could complain because the first training session with them was yesterday, and with the referee. I’m not the kind to find excuses.

“I try to find solutions, and we have players in the national team, which means we have great players. If I have less time to work with them isn’t an excuse. They are ready for tomorrow’s game. I would prefer to have the players working with me all of the time – yes – but this is impossible. No chance for me to think about this kind of excuse,” he also added.

Extra pressure on Mohun Bagan?

Finally, when asked if there is extra pressure on Mohun Bagan to impress their fans in the Jamshedpur FC clash.

Lobera answered: “Pressure in life is on other things. If you read the newspaper, then you can see that. We’re living in very difficult moments in this world, and we’re privileged people to play football and work on our hobby. This isn’t pressure, this is amazing. I love to have pressure to win games. The real pressure when you’re a father, and you don’t get money from your family, or if you’re in a hospital.

“We are excited to play another game tomorrow and finish on top of the table. The only target for me, which I wish to tell the players, is that the biggest target for us is to make the people happy. We have the tools to do it, we play games to play good football, and they must be proud of us. Many people travel to different cities to help us. I was very happy with the Bengaluru FC draw, but that wasn’t the same in the last game. It’s most important to make the people happy, and we want to ensure that tomorrow,” he ended with.

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