ISL 2019-20: In-form ATK hosts struggling Mumbai City

Jorge Costa's Mumbai City FC will look to end its four-match winless streak against ISL leader ATK when the team face off at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.

ATK has scored the most number of goals and conceded just conceded three in return in the ISL so far.

Indian Super League (ISL) leader ATK will be looking to continue its good form at home when it takes on Mumbai City FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in fixture on Saturday. Having won its previous two outings at home convincingly - 5-0 against Hyderabad FC and 3-1 against Jamshedpur FC – ATK’s performance graph has been quite impressive since the return of Antonio Lopez as the head coach this season.

The host currently sits on top of the standings with 10 points from five matches and would be looking to consolidate its position by picking up the maximum points in its third outing at home. Starting with a loss against Kerala blasters, ATK rebounded with three wins (two at home and one ‘away’) before being held to a 0-0 draw by Odisha FC in its last assignment.

The two-time champion has been able to find the right balance of attack and defence with the combination of Roy Krishna and David Williams fetching the rewards upfront. ATK has found the target 10 times so far and has conceded just three goals so far.  The team has been able to find the resilience in the defence too with a three-man backline combining well with the two wing-backs in Michael Soosairaj and Prabir Das.

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“We are trying to find the intensity and pace. We cannot win every match. But we have not lost in the last four matches,” Antonio Lopez said.

For Mumbai City FC, the journey has not been smooth so far and the team finds itself in the seventh in the table after five matches. It is coming off a well-fought 2-2 draw against NorthEast United FC at Guwahati and will be eyeing three points on Saturday, after failing to win a match since the season opener against Kerala Blasters. With the City Football Group buying up majority stakes in the club, the new development is expected to boost up the team’s morale.

The Tunisian striker Amine Chermiti has shown good form and has made up for Modou Sougou’s struggle with fitness. “We are making some mistakes that we will try to fix. As a team, we are doing well but some individual mistakes are costing us the game. But we have got time to fix this and hopefully, we will finish where we want to finish,” said head coach Jorge Costa.