Bengaluru FC bring up their worst finish

Bengaluru: Bengaluru FC rounded off a dismal Indian Super League season in tenth place, with 22 points from as many matches. This was the club's worst ever finish in a season till date.

In a campaign marred by inconsistency, injuries and a resultant dip in fan attendances, BFC failed to build on their runners-up finish in the ISL last season. 

Simon Grayson, who led the team to three finals last season, was sacked after a string of poor displays and his replacement Gerard Zaragoza also failed to nudge the team towards the playoffs.

A deeper dive into some recurring shortcomings provides clarity on what the club needs to address if they want to rediscover their title-winning aspirations.

Firstly, the club needs to show stability. The position of BFC head coach has been a revolving door, with four coaches trying to instill their philosophies and failing miserably in the last three years.

Zaragoza has shown sufficient tactical prudence and player handling capabilities, but the management needs to stick with his vision and endure a transitional period with patience.

Secondly, the transfer policy needs reworking. The Blues, who replaced out-going CEO Mandar Tamhane with Darren Caldeira as the director of football, seemed to have adopted a reactionary attitude in the transfer window.

Since this change in 2022, they have shown a tendency to wait till the deadline week to get deals done, and this adds an extra sheath of unwanted pressure at a time when the season is already underway.

Outgoing Indian players occupying key positions, such as stalwart defender Sandesh Jhingan, were not replaced till mid-season. But this has not been a recent occurrence.

Bengaluru FC have let go of seasoned and proven Indian players such as Rahul Bheke, Nishu Kumar, Ashique Kuruniyan and Harmanjot Khabra over the past four seasons with an eye on the future, but in doing so, have failed to maintain a core of players.

To add insult to injury, some of these Indian players have gone on to other clubs and have done well to ignite a resurgence, whereas the likes of Suresh Singh Wangjam and Naorem Roshan Singh have not been consistent performers off late.

Additionally, the foreign recruitment has not been up to mark. Even though former head coach Albert Roca is on the team’s books as the Technical Consultant, BFC have not been able to attract or retain top foreign players, and often miss out on their key targets. Striker Curtis Main was brought in to suit Grayson's set-up, but the Englishman failed to adapt to the league's demands and was released in January.

This contributed to drab attacking returns, with BFC scoring only 20 goals all season, the second lowest by a considerable margin.

Sunil Chhetri was the joint-highest goal-scorer with five goals, and while Sivasakthi Narayanan enjoyed a breakthrough first season, the 23-year-old was unable to live up to his potential.

The over-reliance on the 39-year-old Chhetri, whose goal-scoring powers are waning, has also meant that the youngsters waiting in the wings are not getting the opportunities they deserve.

Former BFC players Cleiton Silva and Roy Krishna, who produced steady attacking returns during their respective stints, are constantly among the goals for other ISL clubs. Meanwhile, Main’s replacement Oliver Drost failed to score a single goal in nine appearances.

For a team which arguably had the best foreign contingent between 2017-2020, not being able to match that standard of recruitment has been puzzling.

"The club's recruitment has been wrong, and there has been no clear vision," former BFC assistant coach Pradhyum Reddy told DH. "It begs the question of who is in charge of this role, as there seems to be multiple people influencing the decision making." 

While the academy has produced some top talents, BFC are inexplicably letting go of some of their emerging prospects, and this has come back to haunt them.

"At some point, you need to bring the next best youngster coming through and groom them. There is no point bringing youngsters in and not playing them. Then they are not developed.

"The number of people that come up from the academy and debut is pretty low. You are either a spending club or you are a club that brings through players from the youth academy and gives them minutes," Reddy added. 

Zaragoza, in the pre-match press conference ahead of the Mohun Bagan game, was vocal about not having enough leaders on the pitch and vowed to fix this in the upcoming transfer window. Grayson too voiced a similar sentiment in his final press conference.

The fact that this statement was said even though BFC have the Indian captain and up to six national team starters in their ranks is a damning indictment.

For a club rooted to success and silverware, charting a course back to trophy-winning ways is imperative. Bengaluru FC need to return to basics in some respects in order to rediscover that ambition.