Road to ISL playoffs: Edu Garcia comes in late; 5 things ATK got wrong this season
The 2018-19 season of ISL is nearing its end with only the last round of fixtures and the playoffs remaining. One prominent team whose name will be missing from the playoffs is ATK. The Kolkata-based franchise's semi-final finish in the 2015 season was the only blemish in their résumé, sandwiched between the two ISL trophies they had won until 2016.
However, since the number of teams participating in the competition has expanded to ten, ATK have failed to qualify for the playoffs. Here we expound on their five key mistakes which led to their downfall this season.
#5 Signing a manager with a background in English football again
One of the major difficulties which the Kolkata-based franchise endured after the fallout between Kolkata Sports and Games Pvt. Ltd. and Atletico Madrid is the lack of influx of Spanish personnel.
While the first three seasons saw former Valencia coach Antonio Lopez Habas and ex-Villarreal man Jose Francisco Molina at the helm, the fourth edition of the tournament witnessed 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cup player Teddy Sheringham manage the side. The Englishman had only managed a League Two club beforehand and his inexperience led to the club winning only three matches in their first ten games.
Unsurprisingly, he was sacked and Technical Director Ashley Westwood, another fellow Englishman, took over the charges. However, he couldn't save the sinking ship and the club only managed to pull off one victory against bottom-placed Northeast United FC thereafter.
It was expected that the club would realize their mistakes and sign a Spanish name. But, much to the dismay of many, they went ahead with Steve Coppell. The former Manchester City and Reading FC manager took Kerala Blasters to the finals in the 2016 season before guiding Jamshedpur FC to a fifth-place finish in the next season.
Regardless to say, he bought his tactics and English style of football with him which didn't suit the team. ATK has done wonderfully with Spanish managers in the past, which even led to a lot of ISL clubs favoring a possession-based style of football. Rather than expunging the Spanish style of play, they should have stuck with it.