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Coming into Saturday night’s game against Kerala Blasters, NorthEast United had failed to score in four consecutive matches.
NorthEast United once again failed to score, this time against a team which had conceded 12 in their last three outings and have the second worst defensive record this season. Kerala Blasters kept a clean-sheet against a side who have scored the least number of goals this campaign.
In fact, in the matchday squad for NorthEast United, there was only one player who had scored a goal this season – Rdeem Tlang and he was on the bench.
There were hardly any positives to take for either of the two teams as they played out a 0-0 draw in Guwahati.
Eelco Schattorie made some notable or rather obvious changes to his line-up by dropping the error prone duo of T.P.Rehenesh and Raju Gaikwad. One of the major issues for Blasters was not being able to identify a clear number one.
They started the season with Bilal Khan who made a few mistakes while the coach spoke of Rehenesh being their first choice custodian. However, the former NorthEast United goalkeeper hasn’t been any good either. The idea to play out from the back with a goalkeeper who isn’t comfortable on the ball has come back to haunt the Kerala outfit, which even the most ardent supporters of the club would agree.
Last season, NorthEast United, under Schattorie, reached the play-offs and the goalkeeper who played most of their matches was Pawan Kumar and not Rehenesh.
On Friday evening, once again Khan was handed a chance in between the sticks and when called upon, which was few and far between, he did a decent job. Should Bilal have been backed more by the coaching staff instead of the statements of Rehenesh being the undisputed number one? Probably, yes.
Even when Rehenesh was injured and Bilal was playing initially, the public comment from the coach was that Rehenesh was the number one which sends a poor message to Bilal Khan.
The Highlanders are still reeling from the loss of Asamoah Gyan as the club couldn’t find a solution to the Ghanaian’s absence. Their style of play was heavily dependent on the star striker and since his injury, none of the players have been able to step up either. The decision which has backfired the club management was to let go of Panagiotis Triadis at the end of December. The hope that Federico Gallego will reach the heights of last season after a serious injury has come crashing down as the Uruguayan looks a shadow of himself.
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Also some of their foreign players haven’t hit the ground running this season such as Martin Chaves and Maximilliano Barreiro. If the Indian contingent of the squad is young and inexperienced, the foreigners have to step up – something which hasn’t worked for Robert Jarni’s side.
NorthEast United, like Kerala Blasters, need to introspect as to what has gone wrong this season. Neither are they scoring goals nor creating enough opportunities to score. Neither are they sending in as many crosses as the Blasters!
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