ATK’s lack of plan B could come back to haunt them

ATK’s tactics were quite obvious after fifteen minutes of the first-half and Pune successfully dealt with them time and again. Sheringham, quite surprisingly, had no other plan to try and barring some individual spark from Zequinha, the defending champions were left outwitted on their home turf.

One of the biggest critiques of ATK this season has been their poor recruitment at the back. After parting ways with Jose Luis Espinosa Arroyo, who was one the more significant players in last season’s title win, the defending champions chose to recruit a number of youngsters like Keegan Pereira, Prabir Das, Nallappan Mohanraj, Augustin Fernandes - all of them predominantly full-backs.  However, the youngsters are tremendously inconsistent and it was what cost ATK the game today. But they weren’t the only ones who struggled today. When Arroyo’s direct replacement, Thomas Thorpe, wasn’t having a good day with poor interceptions and clearances, the coach hardly had anyone to fall back on.

A huge area of improvement for Kolkata would be their recovery after they lose the ball up the field and have to organise for a counter attack. Their lost sense of positioning and disastrous inability to cope with aerial duels would be explored repeatedly by opponents if Sheringham doesn’t rectify the problem soon. Barring the one goal that Pune managed to squeeze in from two set-pieces in the whole match, FC Pune have attempted five shots at target putting in four of them, which shows ATK’s atrocious defence. Special mention should be of the full-backs, Prabir Das and Keegan Pereira, whose tracking abilities will come under scanner after today’s game. While Pereira was hugely responsible for FC Pune’s second ball, Das gave away the ball innumerable times.

Without a doubt, Marcelinho was the best player on the pitch today. Coming into the den of the defending champions, FC Pune knew that they wouldn’t get to dominate the game in terms of possession owing to the talented midfield that the hosts possess. As such the plan appeared to be to play on the counter and be clinical in the with their end product. That is where Marcelinho excelled and his display would be the perfect way to sum up his team’s performance today.

The Brazilian didn’t put a foot wrong in the entire game, and whenever ATK’s clumsy defence gave him any sort of space, he accepted the gift with open hands. He had two shots on target, scoring as many goals and although he got only 8% of the touches of what FC Pune got in the whole game, his contribution could be seen in every goal that Pune scored (2 goals & 2 assists).