ISL 2024-25: Bengaluru FC shows promising signs of life after Sunil Chhetri in impressive win vs Chennaiyin FC

ISL 2024-25: Bengaluru FC shows promising signs of life after Sunil Chhetri in impressive win vs Chennaiyin FC

For the last few seasons, the question of how Bengaluru FC will cope with life after Sunil Chhetri has lurked in the background.

With his retirement possibly in the offing, Saturday night’s 4-2 victory against Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the Indian Super League (ISL) showed that it may have started finding some of those answers.

Throughout his time in Bengaluru, Chhetri has inevitably been the answer to most attacking questions for the Blues. It’s not difficult to see why – he is ISL’s record goalscorer and has the fourth-most international goals of all time. 

However, across the last couple of seasons, it has been apparent that relying solely on Chhetri for offence is an increasingly unfeasible strategy.

It struggled for goals during the 2023/24 season, scoring just 20 goals from 22 games. For comparison, it has scored 27 in 13 games this season alone.

The side relied heavily on spot-kicks (three of their 20 came from the spot), defensive errors, and moments of individual brilliance (like Javi Hernandez’s overhead kick against East Bengal).

The December 28 game strongly indicated that the Blues are starting to move past this. The first three of their four goals came from link-up play between the starting front three of Chhetri, Ryan Williams, and Jorge Pereyra Diaz.

Indeed, all three goals came from a similar ploy of one of the three running to the bye-line and either cutting the ball back or standing it up to the back post for another player to attack. 

Williams particularly shone on Saturday night.

After turning a Pereyra Diaz cross in to open the scoring, he then turned provider by standing a cross up for Chhetri to nod in at the back post. This is proving especially fruitful for Bengaluru FC this season, with the Australian proving a good foil for Chhetri’s aerial prowess. 

Come the second half, with the game finely poised at 2-2, Williams again proved to be the difference, neatly linking up with Pereyra Diaz to slot home a decider.

The Australian was a menace throughout the game, finding space between the lines to pick up the ball and attack the Chennaiyin defence on multiple occasions, only to be thwarted by the gloves of Mohammad Nawaz.

Such attacking chemistry has been a feature in all of Bengaluru’s attacking play this season.

While the interplay between Chhetri, Williams, and Pereyra Diaz was the deciding factor against Chennaiyin, different Bengaluru attackers including Edgar Mendez, rising star Vinith Venkatesh, and ISL-seasoned star Alberto Nogeura have all been able to step into the team and produce goals when required.

They can also hope for more from Sivasakthi Narayanan, who was once regarded as the future of their attack. 

The most commendable part of Bengaluru’s attacking structure has been the way that it has used captain Chhetri this season.

Multiple managers have been uncertain about how to transition into the post-Chhetri era, oscillating between feeling the need to drop him out of the team entirely (read Simon Grayson) or placing the weight of the entire attack upon his shoulders.

Manager Gerard Zaragoza, however, does neither. Instead, Chhetri has become a valuable part of their increasingly potent attack without being overly reliant on him.

Bengaluru looks to have found its Blues as India’s former captain plays potentially his final few days as a player, giving the fans moments to savour before walking into the sunset.