More than four years after he'd left the club as the assistant manager in an ISL-winning season, Gerard Zaragoza returns as head coach of Bengaluru FC -- but in vastly different circumstances.
Bengaluru are now nine games without an ISL win. They've 5 of their 10 league games so far this season. They've won just one. They've scored 10 goals in those 10 games, while conceding 18. The task facing Zaragoza in the short-term is pretty big. Bengaluru are currently five points off the playoff positions, with 12 games left to go this season for them.
While certainly not impossible, it's a difficult task. And Bengaluru have done it before: just last season, in fact. Having been in a similar hole last season, they turned it around in the second half of the season to eventually finish fourth in the ISL league standings. They then made the final, where they lost to the then ATK Mohun Bagan. The man who engineered that remarkable comeback, though, is gone. So, can this familiar face do it?
First off, what are Zaragoza's managerial credentials?
He's been a bit of a globe trotter, having taken up roles as head coach in Greece and the UAE. His record is not too much to write home about, though. He's not garnered more than two points per game in any of his previous jobs.
However, as coach of Emirati side Shabab Al-Ahli FC, he did take them through to the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League in 2019-20, where they lost to Saudi Arabian side Al Ahli.
He has also only been a head coach for 31 matches at senior level. That inexperience could prove to be an issue as he attempts to dig Bengaluru out of this hole, but his familiarity with the surroundings and the league could balance that out, with even Carles Cuadrat having acknowledged how important Zaragoza's role was to Bengaluru winning the ISL in 2019.
What must Zaragoza address first?
The defence.
On an average, no team has conceded as many shots on target per game this season as Bengaluru have. No team is making as few tackles as Bengaluru are. They are too easy to play through, and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, despite having the most saves of any goalkeeper in the ISL this season, is just left far too exposed.
In an interview with Sportskeeda back in 2019, the year when Bengaluru last won the ISL, Zaragoza had stressed on how he was a coach who liked to control everything on the pitch, especially when a team is out of possession. In that season, Bengaluru conceded just 24 goals in 21 games - five of which came in one game where they rested almost all of their first team. The best teams in the league that year, FC Goa, Mumbai City FC and NorthEast United just managed 8 goals across 9 matches against them.
Now compare that to 18 conceded in 10 this season.
Obviously, the personnel have changed, but in Aleksandar Jovanovic and Slavko Damjanovic, Bengaluru have two solid centre-backs to build upon. It's imperative Zaragoza gets the protection for them right though, and a start might be to go back to the combination of Rohit Kumar and Suresh Singh Wangjam in midfield, which served them so well towards the end of last season.
What about the other end of the pitch?
Only Chennaiyin FC have conceded as many goals as Bengaluru have this season, but Chennaiyin are sacrificing defensive solidity for attacking verve - they've scored five more than BFC. The worry for BFC is that there are goals coming at the other end to balance out their openness at the back (They've only scored 10 in 10).
In the season Zaragoza was with the club previously, Udanta Singh developed into one of the best wingers in the ISL, having scored five goals and assisting a further three that season. His decline post that also coincided with Zaragoza leaving the club, and while that might just be a coincidence, it's something that is worth replicating for Zaragoza, especially with a player of Rohit Danu's potential.
Curtis Main certainly isn't Miku, and Sunil Chhetri isn't the Sunil Chhetri he was back then, but both of them do thrive on crosses from the flanks. In Zaragoza's preferred 4-2-3-1 style, Javi Hernandez would be the #10 behind Main, and Chhetri could be the one starting from the left flank, which makes the role of the right winger crucial, in being the primary supply line into the box. Danu is talented, but hasn't gotten much of a run to showcase it - he did, though, get the assist for the winner in Bengaluru's only win this season.
A way-too-early call is that if Zaragoza is to turn this season around for his new club, Rohit Danu could potentially be the unlikely hero that steps up for him.
What about the intangibles?
That's key. Before any tactical work begins for Zaragoza, his first test as Bengaluru head coach would be to bring confidence back into the group. Bengaluru are currently a team bereft of belief, and as Simon Grayson said in his last press conference as the man in charge, they're a side that lacks vocal leadership on the pitch.
This is where the challenge begins for Zaragoza. In his only year at Bengaluru before this, he had four Spaniards and another Spanish speaker out of the seven foreigners at the club. Now there is just one.
Zaragoza will need to set right the lack of basics that Grayson bemoaned -- Getting the simple passes right, tracking runners, making tackles at the right time, fighting for the badge.
This is a club that for much of its existence has demanded (and got) success. Now a rot seems to have set in. It's an unenviable task mid-season for Zaragoza, but it is now up to him to find the solutions to stop it.