ISL 2020-21: SC East Bengal eye first win

No complaints

“In all honesty, I’ll love to have them more reinforcement) in all areas of the park. But I can’t complain because we have what we’ve. Individual errors have cost us,” Fowler said.

With both sides letting their opponents have most of the ball in their previous matches and preferring to attack on the counter, Saturday’s clash will make for interesting viewing.

Positive start

Meanwhile NorthEast will aim to carry on with their positive start to the season.

“We want to compete. We’re going in a good direction. We’ve to improve a lot. The goal for this season is to be competitive. We’ve to take one game at a time. We’ll do everything we can to win,” said coach Gerard Nus.

Set-piece skills

NorthEast United might have a lot going for them but the one area that is a concern is scoring from open play.

Three of the four goals that Highlanders have scored are from set-pieces.

Tough game

“We’re working to create chances from open play and set-pieces,” said Nus.

“We’ll not have only one plan. We’re focussing on ourselves. We watched them (East Bengal) play and they didn’t have the results they wanted. But they’re going to be difficult and a threat to us. It’ll be a tough game. We know how good they’re with the ball. They’re well organised during set-pieces. We’re going to stop them and create chances against them. That’s the plan.”

“We have many new faces. We have six foreign players and many Indians who are new. This is a short season. We have established a plan since day one. We have started to bring in tactical ideas,” added Nus.