ISL 2023-23: We must help Indian football – Carles Cuadrat promises game time for East Bengal youngsters

East Bengal head coach Carles Cuadrat has promised more game time for the club’s youngsters in the upcoming season of the Hero Indian Super League 2023-24. Cuadrat joined East Bengal during the summer and helped the team qualify for the final of the Durand Cup but they could not cross the last hurdle against Mohun Bagan Super Giant.

However, East Bengal did beat Mohun Bagan Super Giant earlier in the tournament. Meanwhile, the Spaniard has experience of coaching in India and it should help him in his second stint.

Cuadrat started as the assistant coach of Bengaluru FC in 2016 and led them to glory in the Federation Cup. The Blues also won the inaugural Hero Super Cup and became the first Indian club to play AFC Cup final.

Subsequently, after savoring success as the assistant coach, Cuadrat was promoted to the head coach role of Bengaluru FC in 2018. Under his tutelage, BFC became the first team in Hero ISL history to top the league and win the trophy in the same year.

Carles Cuadrat said on ISL Media day, “It’s clear that we need to try and help Indian Football. The young talents need opportunity. When I was in Bengaluru, I gave opportunity to players like Suresh Singh to have more experience in the ISL and to get promoted to the national team.”

The Spaniard added it is about doing the right things in training and improving with experience at the top level.

“I come from a root at Barcelona, that if the players have quality, they can help the team. It’s a question of training, see the talent in training and then help them get implemented into the plan of the team,” the Spaniard said.

“I hope that the youngsters can be with us longer and improve as players. I’ve seen a lot of CFL matches and detected some good talents. We have to learn a lot but we will be supportive to create new talents for Indian Football,” he added.

Cuadrat admitted there are powerful teams in the tournament and they will look to come up with a complete performance.

“I’m not going go say the positive (where) we’ll finish because we have powerful teams in the league. All the teams have been getting great players, trying to go forward with new projects with new coaches,” he said.

“It’ll be an interesting ISL because we’ll meet a lot of coaches who have been champions in India, be it the Champions of the ISL, Federation Cup, Super Cup etc. They already know how to be competitive in that environment,so that’s great for ISL to have so many champion coaches in the competition,” he concluded.

The Red and Gold Brigade will begin their ISL campaign against Jamshedpur FC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata on 25th September.