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The 'City of Dreams' was all set to watch the home team take on Jamshedpur FC in the season opener of their ISL 2018-19 campaign. The fans at the Mumbai Football Arena were buzzing with excitement for the first home game of the season.
What looked like an easy game for the boys in blue, considering the fact that Jamshedpur stalwarts Tim Cahill and Subrata Pal were not in the squad due to suspension turned into a nightmare as they went down by a 2-goal margin. This 2-0 defeat was courtesy of a brilliant header by Mario Arques (28') and a late goal by Pablo Blanco (90+5') which sealed the win for the 'Men of Steel'.
Let us see the 3 reasons why Mumbai suffered defeat at the hands of Jamshedpur.
#3 The Mumbai defensive unit is completely dependent on Lucian Goian
Assigned to play as a centre-back in the starting 11, Lucian Goian was seen playing all over the field with his crucial clearances and fast-paced attacks. Lucian not only held fort as a centre-back but was often seen covering up the wings as a wing-back. The Mumbai wing backs were no match for Jerry, the fast-paced Jamshedpur youngster who kept delivering some mouth-watering crosses in the centre.
It was Lucian Goian's headed clearances that stopped the Jamshedpur strikers from converting those crosses into goals. The back four will have to step up their game and support Goian if they have to avoid conceding goals in the future.
#2 Too many set pieces and offsides
Last night's clash saw Mumbai City FC concede a total of 6 corners and 13 free kicks in the entire game. Even after knowing how dangerously the Jamshedpur men kept delivering the ball into Mumbai's box, the men in blue succumbed to pressure by giving away too many set pieces.
We cannot turn our attention away from the fact that Mumbai City FC found the net twice and both these times they were caught offside. It is no surprise that every team plays the offside trap but it is the responsibility of the attackers to time their runs well. If only they would have been onside, we would have seen a different scoreline at the end of the game.
#1 Poor shooting accuracy
The stats from last night's game will tell you that the Mumbai outfit only managed to get 2 shots on target out of a total of 12 shots. This means that they managed a shooting accuracy rate of only 16 percent in the entire game.
Cameroon striker Modou Sougou was struggling to make room for himself against the Jamshedpur defence. He failed to convert some potential through balls into goal scoring opportunities. The Mumbai City striker has to show some more aggression on the field if he wishes to accumulate some goals this season.
