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          ISL Musings: To Bagan is to win, Jahouh AWOL, Jamshedpur's stellar playoff run

          Mohun Bagan won the 2024-25 Indian Super League Shield with a 1-0 win over Odisha. Abhijit Addya / Focus Sports / FSDL
          • Aaditya Narayan
          Feb 24, 2025, 07:30 AM ET

          Mohun Bagan, champions, of course. An incredible way for one of the great ISL careers to end. The playoff spots beginning to take shape in totality. All that and more in this week's ISL musings:

          ISL Standings | ISL Results and Fixtures | ISL Playoff Scenarios | ISL Matchweek 22

          To Mohun Bagan is to win

          It's just as simple as that. India's most storied football organization, in its latest avatar, is about just one thing - winning. By attractive means or attritional, Mohun Bagan just know how to get the job done. Of course, one can point to the money spent in assembling this squad of superstars, but that is exactly the kind of ambition that results in league titles won in a dominant fashion.

          Let's be real, no ISL team should have the luxury of bringing on Dimi Petratos as an impact sub. Mohun Bagan do. They've got that and more. That's why they've become the first ISL side to breach the 50-point barrier, albeit in the league's longest season yet. That's why the destination of the league shield has been a foregone conclusion for a couple of months now.

          The win to seal the shield, a 1-0 over Odisha FC, was as Mohun Bagan as they come. All season, they've somehow found a way to win. This time, it was a strike from distance by the man the faithful have christened DimiGod, that finally beat an Odisha rearguard that was threatening all night to put this Mariners party on hold for at least a week more.

          It was a season that begin with a bit of turmoil, Jose Molina's attritional safety-first style wasn't turning heads at the maidan. The fans' frustration only turned into anger after they lost the Durand Cup final and then started slowly in the ISL, even losing 3-0 in Bengaluru. However, since then, Molina's machine has just purred along, blips have been few and far between. The first team to retain the ISL league shield are the most dominant table-toppers this league has perhaps ever seen.

          How can your star player go AWOL?

          Ask Odisha FC. Ask the best midfielder to grace this league in its decade-long existence. The long and short of it is that Odisha don't know where Ahmed Jahouh is, they just know he's unilaterally decided to leave. No explanation, no reasons given.

          If that is the last we see of Jahouh in the ISL, then it is such an anticlimactic way for his time in India to end. He's been a joyous player to watch ever since Sergio Lobera brought him along to FC Goa in 2017. With his economy of movement and wand of a right foot, Jahouh made football look easy.

          It's no wonder that Lobera took him wherever he went in Indian Football. From Goa to Mumbai to Odisha, the Spanish coach didn't change his general in the middle of the park. Of course, with age, the movement became even more economical, and he sometimes became a luxury in midfield with the legs not quite what they used to be. That didn't make him any less of a joy to watch.

          Raking cross-field passes which were pinpoint in their execution, the nonchalant flicks, the supreme understanding of the game unfolding in front of him, and even the occasional temper tantrum on the field, watching Jahouh was always a spectacle, so if he's indeed left these shores with this sort of whimper, it is a sad end to life in India for him.

          Kratky's changed Mumbai City are not a good watch

          They're tough to beat, they're tough to even score goals against, but one thing that Petr Kratky's Mumbai City FC also are, are tough to watch. It's a weird thing to be saying about this Mumbai City side, who only last season, produced thrilling attacking football on their way to winning the ISL Cup.

          So what has changed this season? They've lost their ball progressor from midfield in Alberto Noguera, and their new overseas recruits haven't quite set the league on fire. Also, the speed of their wingers hasn't really come to the fore against teams who are now willing to take a step back and watch Mumbai move the ball around in front of them, with no penetration.

          Lallianzuala Chhangte, Vikram Partap Singh and Brandon Fernandes have threatened all season to burst out of the attacking malaise surround Mumbai City, only to be sucked right back into it once again.

          A defence of their cup will only happen if they improve in attack, but on the plus side, the other half of their game looks in pristine condition. They really do know how to keep clean sheets. Can they do that against the best teams in the league, though?

          Don't underestimate the scale of Jamshedpur's achievement

          Just as Mohun Bagan's title has looked destined for a couple of months, so has Jamshedpur FC's spot in the playoffs. Now, that is confirmed, Khalid Jamil's side will finish in the top six. It is an incredible achievement for a group of players and manager who weren't given much of a chance before the start of the season, particularly with their recruitment not being high-profile.

          However, this is the stereotypical Jamil team. They are unspectacular to a fault. They run their socks off in every game. They are relatively organised in defence, and in the likes of Javi Hernandez and Javi Siverio, have enough know-how in attacking areas to be a threat at all times.

          That was all perfectly summed up in the win that took them into the playoffs - a 2-0 success over Mohammedan SC away. Jamshedpur had lesser possession than a team bottom of the standings, attempted fewer passes and made more fouls than Mohammedan as well. Jamil has never been one for aesthetics, though. The mission he set out for at the start of the season is now accomplished. They're among the ISL's big boys for certain.

          They're likely to finish in the top four, guaranteeing them a home tie in the knockout playoff round before the semifinal. One thing is for sure, no team wants to be traveling to Jamshedpur for that one, both in terms of the fatigue-inducing travel and the team that they will face.

          Big Gurpreet decision pays off for Zaragoza and BFC

          For 14 games starting from mid-October, Bengaluru FC hadn't kept a single clean sheet until their home game against Jamshedpur last week. Now they've got two in a row. Poor Gurpreet Singh Sandhu's worst club season ever took another turn, for better or worse, as he was benched in favour of Lalthuammawia Ralte in goal.

          Whether this is a long-term change is immaterial. Gerard Zaragoza finally realised the need to take Gurpreet out of the firing line. Ralte has played his part well enough. His best days won't be as good as Gurpreet's best, of course, but right now, Bengaluru need solidity, a calm presence who doesn't make any mistakes. Ralte did one better in Shillong against NorthEast United, as he made a couple of excellent saves to keep Bengaluru's clean sheet intact, particularly one off an Alaaeddine Ajaraie header, as he threw himself up to his left and palmed the ball onto the crossbar.

          He did pick up an injury late in that game, which makes his presence for the next couple of games a doubt, but at a moment in their season when Bengaluru needed calm, Ralte brought that for them and set the base for six points in two games, which almost certainly wraps up their spot in the playoffs too. Oh, and Alberto Noguera has played a bit of a role in that too. The Spaniard's three goals in the last two games have been such a vital contribution following that run of six winless games.

          Too little, too late for East Bengal, but what could have been?

          Just like Chennaiyin, East Bengal have now put together two wins in a row, but their playoff hopes are hanging by a thread, needing a number of other results to go their way to even entertain the prospect of playing in the post-season.

          This week, they produced a polished attacking display against Punjab FC. Naorem Mahesh Singh was bright out wide, Dimitrios Diamantakos was an imposing presence in the middle. It was all that they'd dreamt of when they spent big money to bring the Greek striker to Kolkata in the summer. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

          Oscar Bruzon will rue the results they had in January, particularly his usage of Mahesh in a central role, that he clearly seemed out of place in. He's a lovely technical player, is Mahesh, but he couldn't quite come to terms with the challenge of having to transfer those skills from the wide positions to the central areas.

          Now, back in his favourite wide area, he's once again having a critical impact on East Bengal's games. For Bruzon, there's a bigger play here too. The ISL playoffs may be out of reach now, but he needs his big players fit and firing for the AFC Challenge League quarterfinal tie against Turkmenistan's Arkadag next week.