ATK Mohun Bagan (Photo | ISL Twitter)
ATK Mohun Bagan (Photo | ISL Twitter)

ATK Mohun Bagan face stiff challenge against unbeaten Hyderabad FC

ATKMB, who lost their last game to Jamshedpur, might have emerged victorious in their other three games, but there is a point of concern.

BENGALURU: ATK Mohun Bagan and Hyderabad FC have solid defensive records this ISL season and teams have found it hard to break them at the back. If the former has conceded two goals from four matches, the latter has been even more impressive, having conceded just once in three games. 

So when these two teams meet at the Fatorda Stadium on Friday, attacking players from both teams will have to step up their game to find the back of the net and guide their team to victory.

ATKMB, who lost their last game to Jamshedpur, might have emerged victorious in their other three games, but there is a point of concern.

The Mariners have been highly dependent on their prolific striker Roy Krishna, who has scored four of their five goals. It is for this reason that teams do not mind being tight on the Fiji international.

Hence, there is a serious need for other players to relieve pressure from the striker or else things could get difficult for their head coach Antonio Habas and his men.

With players like Edu Garcia yet to get off the mark in assists or goals this season, it remains to be seen how they will add more goals to their tally against Hyderabad in case Krishna has an off day.

"The idea is that all players in the first XI have to collaborate to score a goal. Till now, only Krishna and Manvir (Singh) have scored so far. But we are not too worried about the situation," said Habas, who also hinted about the possibility of 32-year-old forward David Williams, who has just played 71 minutes this season, featuring in the contest.

The problem for them does not end there as they have not had much time to rest compared to their opponents. ATKMB last played on Monday while Hyderabad will feature in the league after a gap of nine days, which means more time to prepare for the huge contest.

Hyderabad, who are currently unbeaten in the league so far, have been hit by injuries early on in the season, especially their foreign players, including Luis Sastre and Joel Chianese.

With just six players in the foreigners list, they will once again have to depend on the Indian contingent to get them a positive result.

More importantly, Hyderabad, who have just managed two goals, joint-least alongside Odisha FC so far, need to be more prolific in front of goal.

"It's true that we have been doing well defensively. But as a team, what we need to do is to score more goals. That would be the target. Against ATK, it is not going to be easy because apart from the good foreign players, they also have top Indian players, but we would like to focus on our strengths. ATK being one of the top teams, we have to play our own game and hopefully we do well and come up with a good result," said Hyderabad assistant coach Thangboi Singto.

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