ISL 2022-23: We need to make some changes – East Bengal FC head coach Stephen Constantine

East Bengal FC head coach Stephen Constantine admitted they need to make some changes for the upcoming matches after their 4-2 loss against FC Goa at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa on Thursday. East Bengal has a registration ban on them, stealing the opportunity from them to sign any new players in the January transfer window.

Meanwhile, Iker Guarratoxena scored a hat-trick in the 12-minute interval to give a convincing 3-0 lead to his team in the first half. Subsequently, Brandon Fernandes scored in the 53rd minute to make it 4-0 for the home team. Suhair and Sarthak scored for the tourists but it was not enough.

Constantine admitted that they were terrible in the first half as they conceded three goals. East Bengal FC took two shots on target and converted both of them.

“We were terrible in the first half and then we conceded from the free kick to make it 4-0, but after that we started to play and scored two goals, should have got the third but it’s not good enough. You can’t give teams a two-three goal lead and expect to take anything from the game. So, it’s been like this all season for us. We play just 60 minutes or 45 minutes and you can’t win games like that, so we need to make some changes,” Constantine said in the post-match press conference.

Constantine feels the confidence of the players suffered when they conceded a 3-0 lead in the first 23 minutes of the game.

“When you concede two-three goals in such a short space of time, it really knocks the confidence, your heads drop. They (EBFC players) are a group of boys, they work very hard. We may not have the quality that we need sometimes but in the second half, they reacted to that. Of course it was too little too late,” he said.

Speaking about the positives, Constantine believes it is important for young Indian players to gather experience in matches and show improvement at the top level.

“The positives for me from this game is where we had the two boys (in the game), who were playing for the reserves. That hasn’t happened for a very long time. That doesn’t make losing any easier, but at least there’s some development that has to be good for the club, going forward,” Constantine said.

“I wouldn’t evaluate Athul (Unnikrishnan) based on the eight minutes that he played. It was important to get him in at the right moment, Indian players need to get the experience of playing, the younger the better in my opinion. And we will do that in East Bengal FC, we are all on for development as long as they’re good enough. Tuhin (Das) did okay when he went in. Obviously, they need to work and they’re not going to be regular starters. But, I think they have potential and we need them,” he concluded.

East Bengal FC will next face Kerala Blasters FC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata on 3rd February.