ISL 2018-19: NorthEast United FC vs ATK, 5 Talking Points

NEUFC vs ATK
NEUFC vs ATK

#3 John Johnson, Andre Bikey, Gerson Vieira the trio who controlled the game

John Johnson
John Johnson

ATK has one of the best defences in the league even though the stats might suggest otherwise. The trio of John Johnson, Andre Bikey, and Gerson Vieira was too much for the NorthEast United attack to break down.

Gerson played as the Central defensive midfielder while Bikey and John Johnson slotted in as the centre-backs. Gerson, in particular, was brilliant in countering the threat that Gallego possessed. Bikey did his job of marking the league's joint top scorer Ogbeche to perfection as Johnson saw to it that no late runners made their presence felt inside the box.

Another aspect that was good to see was that the trio always doubled up whenever any of the NorthEast players had the ball near the ATK box which made it hard for NorthEast to play their natural game.

Gerson and Bikey also led the team in keeping their defensive shape and made sure that the two backs of four were always in position and shape.

The ex Mumbai defender Gerson also helped ATK regain possession on a couple of occasions.

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