Bengaluru FC are a work in progress, as evidenced by their stop-start campaign in this season’s I-League. Albert Roca’s first stint in the I-League was a mixed bag. It started with three clean sheets and ended with four more corresponding with an equal number of victories at either end of the league. But the Blues still finished fourth in the league.
After the high of reaching the AFC Cup finals in 2016, Bengaluru showed that they weren’t infallible as they recorded their lowest ever league finish of fourth, since their first ever I-League season in 2013.
It did seem at times that the Blues were ponderous in possession and that the ball did spend a longer-than-average time in midfield in the build-up to the action in the final third. But do the numbers justify Roca’s first season? Let’s take a closer look.
India’s very own tiki-taka
The ex-Barcelona assistant and El Salvador head coach was always going to bring about a change in Bengaluru’s style, as he tried to implement the fabled Catalan ‘tiki-taka’ style of play.
The focus in such a style of play is on precision and speed, as the ball is moved out from the back in a systematic manner, instead of hoofing it long. If anything, the midfield of Cameron Watson and Lenny Rodrigues did put in the shifts that was required of them as those in front could and should have been more clinical.
The Blues had the highest average pass accuracy in the league this season with 81% of their 522 pass attempts (average every 90 minutes) reaching a teammate. They completed 422 of those per game, more than 20% higher than the next best, DSK Shivajians.
Chennai City in 10th, could only complete 58% of BFC’s passes as the Blues were by and far the best passers in the league this season. Although they lead the league in terms of percentage of attacking passes, non-attacking and key passes completed, they averaged 138 non-attacking passes (A pass to the nearest team mate for the purposes of ball control) every game, a whopping 53% higher than their closest rivals in this aspect, East Bengal.
It is also no surprise that Bengaluru averaged the shortest pass in the league this season. While Minerva Punjab played the longest passes at an average of 21.7 metres, Bengaluru were the lowest with an average pass length of 19.4 metres. Interestingly, only Aizawl and East Bengal attempted fewer long passes (more than 30 metres) than the two-time I-League champions.
Bengaluru are also the fastest team in the league this season, with an average of almost 14 passes per minute. Champs Aizawl are sixth with 12.1 passes completed per 60 seconds while Minerva are the lowest with 11.3 passes.
Overall, only Mohun Bagan were more successful than BFC in their challenges won-to-attempted ratio but defensively, the Blues who conceded 15 goals, joint third-lowest in the league were the most solid, winning 61% of their challenges.
They were also the most dominant team when it came to tackling percentages in their own half but struggled especially in the 3rd fourth of the pitch, lowest among all the teams and level on numbers with Chennai City FC and Mumbai FC.
As individuals, Watson and Rodrigues did actually have good seasons, which flew under the radar due to BFC’s final league position. Watson completed a league-high 990 passes, 40% higher than his nearest competitor, Isaac Vanmalsawma of Shillong Lajong who managed 707.
The Aussie also managed the highest pass accuracy in the league, 87% followed by Rodrigues who managed 86%. Watson also ranked first among central midfielders for assists (4), third for key passes per game (1.1), first for successful passes into the box (4.7) and fifth for interceptions in the opposition half per game (2.2).
As elucidated earlier, they have had the highest possession stats this time around, averaging 59% every game and 4.2 instances of holding onto the ball for more than 45 seconds every 90 minutes.
But as the statistics of the four front players show, it is important to see what they did with this possession. Wedson Anselme, Mahmoud Al Amna and even Mumbai’s young medio Hitesh Sharma averaged more key passes than Eugeneson Lyngdoh in the league this season.
Of all of their players who featured in the front four positions in the league, only Sunil Chhetri with 63% had a respectable dribble completion rate. The rest struggled to complete half of their dribbles, case in point Udanta Singh who attempted 83 dribbles, which is the sixth-highest in the league, but only completed 41 (49% success rate). This is lower than Sony Norde (63%), Anselme (69%), Jayesh Rane (56%), Ansumanah Kromah (72%) and Juan Quero (69%).
Chhetri had the highest number of shots on target (21) but his shots were off target more often than not as his accuracy (41%) was lower than Darryl Duffy (51%), Asier Dipanda Dicka (49%), Anthony Wolfe (50%) and Willis Plaza (55%).
Taking all the statistics into regard, it can be said that Bengaluru’s football definitely appears to be headed in a new direction, perhaps for the good, but they must be more clinical and cut-throat with their chances and domination.
After all, there’s no point stringing together 10 passes inside the box if the ball doesn’t go into the back of the net. On the basis of this evidence, Roca had earned himself another season to mould the team in a fashion that is new and yet unexplored to these shores.
The Spanish coach, however, must become more pragmatic and be ready to ditch his ideas for the sake of the win if Bengaluru are to indeed progress from the Ashley Westwood era.
All statistics provided in this story have been supplied by InStat Football.