Our first ISL Musings column of 2025 has had quite a lot to take in as India's top division continues to rollercoaster its way around the country. Mohun Bagan remain boringly good at their jobs, FC Goa promise great things, Khalid Jamil is Khalid Jamil-ing along, and we've seen a major transfer at Kerala Blasters. If this MW has been any indication, the rest of the 2024-25 season will make for a fun watch.
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We muse, on ISL's matchweek 15:
Yeah, Bagan win, what's new?
No, seriously. 3-0, created double the xG of Hyderabad, didn't bother all that much with possession (45%), one of Cummings-Petratos-Maclaren scored (Jason C), and they are now five points clear on top of the league. Rinse, repeat, let's all just move on and let them keep that shield trophy in their tent at the maidan.
This is a team getting results that are commensurate to the quality of players in the squad: and there's nothing surprising about any of it.
Mohemmadan are such a puzzle
And if we're scratching our heads, spare a thought for Andrey Chernyshov. The Russian guided Mohemmadan through the I-league with a disciplined defence -- but this season, we've only seen brief glimpses of it as they oscillate between being just-not-good-enough and being comically inept. Against NorthEast, though, we saw a proper Chernyshov unit. They weathered a proverbial storm from in Guwahati (NEUFC had 25 shots!) and walked away with a 0-0 draw and a point few saw coming.
...Oh, and you can understand Juan Pedro Benali's anger. After the match, the NEUFC manager stalked onto the pitch and berated most of his players right then and there. They had 61% possession, created an xG of 1.81, and racked up 8 corners against the bottom-of-the-table MSC. What will rankle most for the joint top scorers this season, though, is that they only got two of their 25 shots on target.
Brison Fernandes will make Manolo Marquez happy twice over
Four goals in the last two games, all smartly taken against high calibre defences (Bagan and Odisha PLUS another scored a while back against Bengaluru), combining poaching instincts off-the-ball with genuine threat whenever he gets on it -- Brison Fernandes has been superb recently. As Goa romped home comfortable 4-2 winners at the Kalinga, Brison stole the show with his goals, and his incessant attacking.
And this will please Manolo Marquez no end. At the beginning of the season, Goa looked horribly toothless, but with more time with the current squad, Marquez has worked his magic -- and Brison has become a central figure over the past two games. If he can keep this up, Marquez can rotate his foreign attacking options as he pleases, adding a dimension of tactical flexibility that he didn't have until now.
Plus, if he really does keep this up, Marquez could well use him for another toothless team that he manages on occasion...
You dare not write off Khalid Jamil
Jamshedpur had no right to win that match, really. For 84 minutes, Bengaluru were on top at the place they call the Furnace and were doing as they pleased on-and-off the ball. Only luck, some sensational last-ditch defending, and a stubborn goalie had kept the score at 0 - 1 when Jordan Murray fashioned a chance out of nothing, took advantage of some timid defending and equalised. The moment that hit the net, though, momentum shifted completely. Mohammad Uvais' sublimely taken winner may have been as a result of (yet another) Gurpreet blunder, but it was a consequence of proper Jamshedpur pressure.
This is exactly how a good Khalid Jamil team has always played. Even when it's not their day, even when they have just 37% possession (as well as 200 passes and a whole 1 xG less than their opponent) you simply can't count them out. Now, if they address their travelling woes -- they have taken 21 points from 24 at home and just three from 15 away -- they would be right proper contenders in the playoff stage. Since it's Jamil, you'd best not bet against that happening.
Rahul KP leaves behind a tale of 'what if?'
From a logical point of view, this transfer makes a lot of sense: Rahul KP has never really played to his potential at the Blasters, there's only so many teasing glimpses a club can take before moving on to another project, and Rahul himself needs a fresh start to inject some life into his career.
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲! 🥹
The dressing room just got a whole lot cooler. 🥶#OdishaFC #AmaTeamAmaGame #KalingaWarriors pic.twitter.com/OHmjtObYtE
- Odisha FC (@OdishaFC) January 7, 2025
But is it really all about logic only? The Blasters faithful have loved Rahul ever since they saw him as a 19-year-old and while things kept changing in the squad and outside it, the presence of one of their own, a proper talent, was always a comforting one. Five and a half years down the line, it's over -- and if you're a Blasters fan, it's okay to feel sad about that, okay to feel 'what if... (imagine if Hyderabad had not equalised in that ISL final!)', okay to feel a bit disconnected. Football will move on, and with it so will the fans and Rahul and everyone else, but in this moment there's a faint whiff of sadness in the air. And that's okay.
P.S. The Blasters showed great grit in winning a tough, tough away match at Punjab FC with just nine men on the pitch (10 for 32 minutes, 9 for 16). They'll need a lot more of that if they want to make a dent come the business end of the season.
Mumbai survive scare, but are they good enough?
Well, they are good enough to be fifth and firmly in control of their own playoff destiny, and that security came because of a dramatic win against East Bengal at the Salt Lake.
City dominated the first half -- Peter Kratky pulling Chhangte deeper into a midfield three, but importantly more central as one of two 10s helped immensely here -- before caving under East Bengal pressure. This was even more concerning for City because of just how many chances they'd squandered up till then but at 2-2, it seemed most likely that the home side would get the next goal. Which is when Nikos Karelis seized on a bad defensive mistake and scored an 87th minute winner.
The hope for Kratky will be that this tweak in formation (please don't banish Chhangte to a touchline-hugging winger role again) and this slice of fortune/holding of nerves jumpstarts what's been a below-par season so far.