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ATK 1-0 Bengaluru FC: 3 reasons why the defending champions lost | ISL 2019-20

David Williams' strike made the difference against the holders for ATK. (Image: ISL)
David Williams' strike made the difference against the holders for ATK. (Image: ISL)

ATK edged past Bengaluru FC 1-0 in the Indian Super League at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. The hosts began the contest brightly and immediately carved out a chance, although Roy Krishna fluffed his lines.

A few minutes later, Dimas Delgado sent his free-kick wide as the visitors grew into the game as the minutes ticked by. However, there wasn’t enough goal-mouth action in the opening 45 minutes, meaning that the outfits went into the break deadlocked at 0-0.

After the restart, ATK surged into the ascendancy when David Williams clinically finished past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the 47th minute. The Australian was set up by Jayesh Rane, who industriously won the ball off Rahul Bheke on the edge of the penalty box.

Thereafter, the away side tried to peg the hosts back but none of the former’s attacking play boasted the required inspiration to prize open the latter’s defensive lock.

Here is a look at three reasons why Bengaluru FC lost the encounter.


#3 Carles Cuadrat gets it slightly wrong at the start

Cuadrat got his tactics slightly wrong against ATK
Cuadrat got his tactics slightly wrong against ATK

For the trip to Kolkata, Carles Cuadrat decided to shuffle his tactical pack as he opted to mirror ATK’s formation. In the process, the Spaniard hoped to neutralize the hosts’ threat and set the ideal platform for Bengaluru to build upon.

However, despite the tweak seeming shrewd in theory, it didn’t transpire the way the visitors envisaged.

Rahul Bheke was recalled into the starting line-up with the defender starting as the left-sided centre-back. Harmanjot Khabra and Nishu Kumar operated as the wing-backs whereas Albert Serran and Juanan were the other central defenders.

Consequently, the away side allowed ATK plenty of room through midfield, meaning that they enjoyed the requisite time to pick gaps in Bengaluru’s defence. Additionally, one of Krishna or Williams always dropped a touch deeper to create situations of numerical superiority and then lay the ball on for their teammates.

Moreover, with Bheke playing on the left, the side looked imbalanced, considering his preference to use his right foot. The above meant that there were several instances where Bengaluru couldn’t play out from the back adequately because the Indian inevitably cut inside and chose crowed passing options.

Unsurprisingly, the opening goal came after Bheke committed a mistake on the edge of the box. After intercepting a pass, his heavy touch allowed Jayesh to pinch the ball off him and feed Williams. The Australian made no mistake as he thumped his effort past Gurpreet.

More puzzlingly though, Cuadrat also decided to deploy Raphael Augusto much deeper, thereby trying to create a 3v3 situation in the middle third. However, the Brazilian was starved of possession in promising areas as he kept dribbling into several blind alleys, especially considering none of his teammates made the desired forward runs.

Over the course of the past couple of seasons, Cuadrat has superbly blended extravagance with efficiency at Bengaluru, meaning that they’ve often been equipped to handle whatever oppositions have had to throw at them.

Yet, one reckons that the Spaniard might not look back at the game against ATK as one of his tactical masterstrokes. 

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