Three things East Bengal must improve after Durand Cup setback

East Bengal were knocked out of the Durand Cup by Diamond Harbour FC.

East Bengal faced a major reality check in the semifinal of the 2025 Durand Cup by suffering a disappointing 2-1 loss to Diamond Harbour FC. After having dominated the group stages and defeating Mohun Bagan in the quarterfinal, expectations were high that the Red & Gold Brigade would go on to win the tournament.

However, a sluggish and sloppy performance in the semifinal allowed Diamond Harbour to get the better of them and caused East Bengal’s elimination. For Oscar Bruzon, this has to be treated like a learning lesson as he got to know some key aspects about the shortcomings within East Bengal in the defeat. Fortunately for him, the majority of the 2025-26 season is yet to be played and these issues can be rectified.

Despite East Bengal showing signs of improvement at the Durand Cup, there are some clear issues within the squad that absolutely need to be improved. Here we look at the three things East Bengal must improve after their Durand Cup setback.

3. More attacking full-backs

East Bengal tried to throw the kitchen sink at the Diamond Harbour backline in the Durand Cup clash, but failed to ultimately outscore them. They poured almost the entirety of their team into the opposition half, but were really helped back because of the lack of attacking qualities from their full-backs.

Lalchungnunga keeps struggling in the left-back role, not having enough quality to make overlapping runs or make an impact in the final third. Mohammad Rakip might be defensively solid, but he continues being underwhelming in the opposition half.

Bruzon seriously needs his full-backs to show more effort in terms of making forward runs and enhancing his side’s attacking threat with their crossing ability. If he has to make the full-backs train harder to improve their attacking quality, then so be it.

He needs to work harder on ensuring his full-backs are braver in making those darting runs through the wide areas, which can help stretch opposition backlines and open up gaps that can benefit the forwards. Having more attacking full-backs can also help the wingers drift in centrally to improve East Bengal’s goal scoring chances, especially in the big matches, later this season.

2. Pouring more players into scorable situations

East Bengal’s formation means that they are quite reliant on their centre-forward being at the end of all chances in the majority of their attacking moves. Bruzon tends to like to keep a midfield pivot where at least one player sits back and another moves around the central ares to move the ball around and recover it sharply.

However, an issue that was notable from the loss to Diamond Harbour was that for the majority of the game, there were not too many players in key goal-scoring situations.

This pertains to not that many East Bengal players crowding the opposition box in attacking areas, and too many individuals being outside the box during the open play chances. Bruzon has to look to find a solution to this, even if it means tweaking his system a little bit.

He needs multiple East Bengal attacking players to be inside the box for the majority of chances and encourage midfielders to make late runs into the area as well. Doing so will confuse the opposition defenders and make it difficult for them to put in a proper marking system, make East Bengal a more fluid and unpredictable attacking unit.

1. Fix the set piece issues

A persistent issue that plagued East Bengal for almost the entirety of the 2025 Durand Cup was in terms of how they seemed to struggle to defend against set pieces. In the win over Mohun Bagan, they conceded a goal from a corner that was taken short before Anirudh Thapa’s shot went through a sea of bodies into the back of the net. Diamond Harbour FC perfectly capitalised on East Bengal’s shakiness in defending from corners or free kicks, as both their goals came from set-piece situations.

This is an issue that Bruzon has to work hard on getting his players to resolve. Prabhsukhan Gill, for one, hasto do better and be more commanding when defending against set pieces. He needs to be smart with clearing away danger and position himself correctly to make the saves.

Unless East Bengal can improve their set piece defending, it’ll continue to be their Achilles heel and cause many sloppy goals to be conceded.

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