How are East Bengal lining up ahead of ISL 2021-22 season?

SC East Bengal will play in its second season in the Hero ISL 2021-22 when it takes on Jamshedpur FC on 21st November 2021. It is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in India. Today we will discuss how they are lining up this season and their chances in this season’s ISL. 

• Goalkeepers: It is one of the strongest positions of SC East Bengal. This season Arindam Bhattacharjee, one of the best goalkeepers of India, will stand under their bars. Last season he was with ATKMB and gave excellent service to his club. Overall he has featured in 79 ISL games, making 212 saves with a save percentage of 72.85%. Apart from Arindam, SCEB will also have the services of Sankar Roy and Suvam Sen. Sankar Roy has already proved himself at Santosh Trophy and I league for Bengal and Mohun Bagan respectively. He is much remembered for his acrobatic saves that he made during his tenure at Mohun Bagan. Suvam Sen is also a very talented goalkeeper and will definitely be a great backup goalkeeper for SC East Bengal. 

• Central Defenders: Last season, SCEB’s defense was much criticized by Football experts. But this season East Bengal have strengthened their defense by the addition of Adil Khan, Tomislav Marcela, and Franjo Prce. Adil Khan is one of the best Indian defenders of the current time. He has represented FC Goa at the AFC champions league.Also, he stood like a rock in front of Qatar attack helping India to snatch 1 point from  a team like Qatar. Tomislav Mrcela ,the 6ft 5 inches Australian Croatian, gave excellent service to Perth Glory last season. Also, he has a great goal poaching ability and he scored numerous goals from set-pieces. Apart from Marcela, Franjo Prce also is a defender with a rich pedigree. He played for Croatian youth teams and also made his appearance at Serie A for Lazio. While Marcela is a No-nonsense Center back, Franjo Prce is a Ball playing defender who distributes the ball from the back. Joyner Lourenco and Daniel Gomes are also there in the squad who are very much talented and will surely provide the backup in the squad. Raju Gaikwad who played in the last season for SC East Bengal will continue his service this season and his long throws are a definite reason of worry for the opponents. 

• 
  FullBacks: This is the position where the Red and Gold brigade is a little bit weak than the rest of the positions especially the Left back position. Hira Mondal and Serineo Fernandez
   both are very much inexperienced and it is a big reason to worry for Manolo Diaz.Ankit Mukherjee as right back has proved his ability in the last season but his poor timing and lack of defensive sense troubled the team last season. 

• Defensive Midfielders:This is a position which was problematic last season but this season they have rectified their mistakes.With the likes of Amarjit Singh Kiyam,Darren Sidoel and Sourav Das this position looks stronger than ever.Sourav Das’s blocking ability was much applauded by the experts last season.Darren Sidoel ,the Ajax Academy product,is a extremely talented footballer and will surely prove to be one of the greatest signing of the season.Also Amarjit Singh Kiyam’s addition to the squad increased the strength of this position and he will surely be a player to look out for. 

• Midfielders:The East Bengal recruiters have showed enough witness in hiring midfielders for the squad.An excellent combination of experience with Youth can be seen in this position.The club this season secured the signing of Amir Dervisevic from Slovenia who is highly regarded as a Set piece expert and will definitely increase the strength of midfield twice.Mohammed Rafiq’s workload will definitely be a key for East Bengal’s success this season.Also the likes of Romeo Fernandrez,Jackichand Singh will definitely prove to be a great addition to the squad. 

• Striker:East Bengal this season has secured the signing of Nigerian talismanic forward Daniel Chima who has played overall 262 matches scoring 91 goals.He had won Polish Championship and Norwegian Cup while playing for Legia Warszawa and Molde FK.He will get the necessary support from Subho Ghosh,Naorem Mahesh Singh and Balwant Singh and will definitely prove to be a threat to the opposition 

• Predicted XI: Arindam ,Hira ,Marcela ,Adil ,Ankit ,Sourav ,Sidoel  ,Dervisevic ,Rafiq , Jackichand,Chima