Indian football: Former East Bengal star Mahmoud Al Amna – ‘I enjoyed watching Kibu Vicuna’s Mohun Bagan’

Mahmoud Al Amna joined East Bengal in 2017 after a memorable campaign with Aizawl FC where he lifted the I-League title with the North Eastern club.

He followed coach Khalid Jamil to the Red and Golds and soon won the Calcutta Football League (CFL) in 2017-18. Even though he had a very short stint with the club, the Syrian was a crowd favourite and had become a household name among the fans.

The Red and Golds had a forgettable outing last season, with no silverware to show for.

Speaking about his former club’s poor show, Amna told Goal, “In 2018-19 season they had good players and they finished runners-up in the I-League. But you need to keep your players who did well in the last season. They should have continued with the foreign and Indian players who delivered for them. They allowed too many players to leave. Players like Johnny Acosta (returned to play one match last season), Enrique Esqueda and also some Indian players did not return last season.”

The Syrian had worked under Spanish coach Alejandro Menendez at East Bengal. Amna suggested that the coach’s pragmatic style of play was one of the major reasons why the club failed to produce positive results.

“Coach Alejandro (Menendez) likes to play like Atletico Madrid. You score one goal and start defending. That doesn’t work. Look at Mohun Bagan last season. They played good football, created so many chances. It’s okay if you don’t always win but you have to play good football. But East Bengal only focused on organisation and not good football. This was a big problem for them. You are a big team, you should dominate. But maybe that was the mentality of the coach.”

Comparing Menendez to his compatriot and Mohun Bagan’s I-League winning coach Kibu Vicuna, the former Aizawl midfielder said, “Alejandro and Kibu Vicuna are completely different. When I played under him during the pre-season in Malaysia (2018), I had told the assistant coach (Mario Rivera) that we cannot win much with this style, it’s too defensive. You must play attacking football.

“I enjoyed watching Mohun Bagan last season. They played an attacking brand of football. That, we just couldn’t see in East Bengal.”

There are questions about East Bengal playing the Indian Super League (ISL) after Mohun Bagan joined hands with ATK to enter the top-tier in the country. Though fans want the club to play the ISL, it seems unlikely at this point. However, Amna feels a club of East Bengal’s stature should definitely play the ISL.

He said, “I think East Bengal must play the ISL this year because they are a big team. I-League is like second division now and it is not good for East Bengal. It is good for their fans, their history.”