Arnab Mondal has joined the team today
Kolkata: Haitian star Wedson Anselme might get his preferred position back against DSK Shivajians when East Bengal will play their first away match of the 2017 Hero I-League at Pune on Saturday. The Haitian might start as a winger instead of playing in his unusual no.10 role of a supporting forward. Coach Trevor Morgan wanted to fit the foreigner as a withdrawn forward against Aizwal FC in the opening game and ended up being not as successful as he was expected to. Today, in the training session the East Bengal gaffer used him in his preferred role as a right winger and Wedson seemed much more comfortable in it.
The good news for the East Bengal fans is that their best Indian defender Arnab Mondal, who had a surgery a month back, has joined the side today. But Trevor said, “No, he is not fit. Hopefully when we will come back from our two away games, Arnab might be able to join a bit of training with the side.” Midfielder Lalrindika Ralte too seemed comfortable during the training today, as the gaffer said, “Dika had a small groin problem and it was a nagging injury. The worst part was that if we would have taken a risk of playing him in the opening game, the things could have gone from bad to worse. We did the sensible thing of giving him three days of rest and he is fit now, training with the side and having no pain. He would certainly be in action in our next two away games.”
The Red & Gold brigade is all set to make a few significant changes to the starting XI and Trevor seemed not happy with the first appearance of Nikhil Poojary as an U22 player. The way the training went today, it seemed that Abinas Ruidas is about to get his place in the starting XI against DSK. Jackichand Singh might have to sit out as the four midfielders against the Pune outfit could be Abinas, Mehtab, Rowllin and Wedson. Trevor seemed relieved with the availability of his forwards. He said, “In the previous game we only had a single forward which we don’t do normally. Now it looks like we have two strikers available against DSK to play with, which is good.” Morgan’s remarks made it clear that he has made up his mind that he would play with Plaza and Haokip on the up front.
The Red & Gold boss is desperate to grab full three points from their next game as he stated, “The target would be to get two points more compared to what we got in the previous game. We have been preparing ourselves as much as possible to get full points from the next game. We already had five training sessions since we played our last game and I believe we have prepared well.”
Morgan is still unsure about the strengths and weaknesses of his next opposition but he said, “Well, I haven’t seen them as yet. So have no idea so far, but I will surely have the DVD of their first game and we will prepare our strategies accordingly after that.” Circumspect East Bengal coach informed that he would travel with a twenty men squad instead of eighteen men, considering the precautions that he might deal with the injury issues in their next two away games.