Kerala Blasters FC will look to halt ATK Mohun Bagan's winning run and close the gap with them as well as Hyderabad FC, when the two sides meet in a rescheduled Indian Super League encounter at the Tilak Maidan Stadium on Saturday.
Kerala beat SC East Bengal to get back to winning ways in their last encounter. The yellow army sits in fourth place with 26 points from 15 games. ATK Mohun Bagan has also played 15 matches, winning their last three games and is breathing down league leaders Hyderabad's neck with the same number of points (29) but inferior goal difference.
ATKMB has done exceedingly well under Juan Ferrando, especially in the absence of key foreign players where the Indians have stepped up. Indian forwards Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh have thrived to keep the Mariners in the top four this season.
Colaco leads the Indian scorers with 7 goals while Manvir is at the joint second spot with 5 goals, a spot he shares with Mumbai City FC's Bipin Singh. Manvir became the first Indian player to score in three successive games for ATKMB in the ISL and the third ATKMB player to score in three straight games after Roy Krishna and David Williams after scoring goals in each of his last three games.
No player has taken more shots in ISL 21-22 than Colaco (57) while Manvir has taken the third highest shots among Indian players with 35 shots. Beyond the statistics, Colaco has been brilliant in almost every game for the green and maroons, linking up beautifully with the midfield and supplying some delightful balls to the likes of David Williams and Manvir.
"The job of the coaching staff is to help all the players and keep the squad ready. I am upset because sometimes the performance is not great but that is for every team. The players are playing for a short period so it's not easy. The players in our team want to help the team," said Ferrando. On the injury updates to Carl McHugh, Hugo Boumous, Roy Krishna, and David Williams, Ferrando said: "They are improving. I am happy because it was difficult in the last 3-4 games as they were injured but they are working with the team now and that is most important. When they are fully ready, it's the best for the team."
ATKMB can also rely on Indian players to get them the goals. Seventeen of the 31 goals scored by ATKMB have been scored by Indian players. No team has had a greater number of goals scored by Indian players this season.
For Kerala, they have kept their backline relatively tight and that has been a bedrock for their success. The Blasters have kept six clean sheets in ISL 21-22, the highest number of clean sheets they have managed to keep in an ISL season is the seven they managed in ISL 2014 when they reached the final.
Prabsukhan Gill leads the race for Golden Glove with 5 clean sheets in 12 games. The young goalkeeper has conceded 10 goals in 12 games this season, conceding a goal every 100.4 minutes.
"We will fight to stay on top. It's good that we have all players available for selection and we will see how the training goes and then we will decide on our XI," said Kerala head coach Ivan Vukomanovic.
The last time the two teams met in the first game of the season, ATKMB ran out 4-2 winners.
( With inputs from ANI )
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