Carles Cuadrat’s gamble backfires as sterile Bengaluru fall prey to ATK

ATK inflicted a 1-0 defeat on the Indian Super League (ISL) holders Bengaluru FC and climbed to the top of the table on Wednesday. The dominance of the home side at the Salt Lake Stadium and Bengaluru’s impotence is not reflected perfectly on the scoreline.

The scoreline could also have read 2-0 had Roy Krishna’s effort not ruled out incorrectly.

Several things went wrong for Carles Cuadrat, whereas Antonio Habas trusted his system and got almost everything right. The Bengaluru gaffer played a 3-5-2 formation to nullify ATK’s numerically superior midfield. The back-three comprised Albert Serran, Juanan Gonzalez and Rahul Bheke in an unfamiliar left centre-back position. Harmanjot Khabra and Nishu Kumar were the two wingbacks, while Ashique Kuruniyan was benched.

Bheke and Nishu, both full-backs by trade, started on the same flank and had to carry out different roles. The instability was visible and the fact that Prabir Das and David Williams were brilliant did not help the Blues.

The attacks on the right flank didn’t come to fruition either, with ATK dealing with Udanta Singh’s tame crosses comfortably. The extra man in midfield meant that Bengaluru could not get enough bodies in the box for the crosses while ATK, who were used to playing with three at the back, could easily deal with the balls into the box.

Bengaluru, on the other hand, were not used to playing a three-man defence and it was visible. They were not organised enough and found it hard to get the wingbacks back in time to defence as five.

Cuadrat’s Plan B was not much of an improvement as the final move of having Udanta play in a low cross remained the same. Again, Antonio Habas must be given due credit for how well his midfield nullified Bengaluru’s and forced them to go either long or wide. Mandi and Rane did a great job at suffocating Dimas Delgado and Raphael Augusto.

ATK gave up possession to Dimas and Raphael easily and defended stoutly, and the two Bengaluru midfielders could not create anything of note. It was a classic case of sterile possession.

That Bengaluru had zero shots on target and no player that started the game had fewer touches than Sunil Chhetri (27) evidences ATK’s tremendous job in midfield.

ATK’s perseverance for the win and immense commitment to seeing the game off was evident in their impressive work-rate. They played their last game just four days ago, as opposed to the one-week break that the Blues enjoyed. Cuadrat admitted that he tinkered with the winning combination as he was confident of the lack of rest taking a toll at the death for the hosts.

“ATK played a match just three days ago. Whereas, we played seven days ago. I knew that we would have chances in the closing stages of the match,” the Bengaluru gaffer explained why he chose to tweak his team.

But fatigue was off the table for Habas’ men, who managed the game well to clinch their first ever win against Bengaluru.

This win will come as a huge boost to the table-toppers, who were the better side in every department. The visitors have quite a few issues they need to address before they host FC Goa in a crucial encounter.