When it is not your time, it's just not your time. Kerala Blasters are finding that out the hard way. Two matches, two losses, no goals scored, no shots on target, Steve Coppell couldn't have wished for a worse start even if he had wanted to.
Their current state evokes a particular line from the Guns and Roses song Sweet Child of Mine – Axl Rose singing "Where do we go now?" Where does Kerala go from here? After scratching the bottom of the basement, the only place left to go – that's right – is the moist earth and lower.
The Blasters' miserable run against Atletico de Kolkata continued despite a 60,000-plus crowd turning up in Kochi in full voice to support the home team.
The crowd were vociferous, animated and chanted for their team but the hosts were as insipid as they were loud, as the Blasters slipped to a second straight loss without managing to trouble the opposition goalie for the second game in a row.
It was a largely listless, ineffective display from the Blasters who only looked like scoring from set-pieces when their big men, Sandesh Jhingan and Cedric Hengbart came up to try and make something happen for the home team in the opposition box.
The two have been the best players for the Blasters at both ends of the pitch, which is really saying something. ATK's goal against the Blasters might have come off a Jhingan deflection but it was the two centre-backs along with Aaron Hughes in the first match, and with Pratik Chaudhari in the second that saved Kerala's blushes and kept the margin of defeat down to a single goal.
Kerala's comedy of errors
It's difficult to see a way back for the ex-Reading coach and his men as they lurch from one disaster to another. The team management should also put their hands up and accept a share of the blame for building a squad with seven attackers, but only one full-back.
The worst part is that the only full-back, Rino Anto, had prior commitments with Bengaluru FC in the ongoing AFC Cup. Surely that contingency should have been factored in while building the squad? Or did the management just assume that Bengaluru would get knocked out and that Anto would play all season for the Blasters?
Ideally, Kerala should have signed three full-backs, one of those as back-up. As it turned out, they have none travelling with the squad currently, with Copell forced to play a three-man defence with Gurwinder Singh and Ishfaq Ahmed, playing as the wing-backs. One is a winger, the other is a central defender.
It is a comedy of errors, laughable at best, bordering on the ridiculous as Kerala have all but dug their own grave, leaving the other teams to merely throw in the remaining specks of sand to bury them.
What's wrong with the attack?
Of course, the season is just two matches old for the Blasters and it would be wrong to assume that this wretched form of theirs will continue. After all, they are the runners-up of season one and could still mount a comeback, pull off a couple of surprises, get into the play-offs and make a run for the title? Right?
At this moment, even the most ardent of Blasters' fans would struggle to agree with this sentiment. Last season, they finished dead last and one would hope that they would learn from the debacle, choosing wisely this time. Especially after they fired a manager midway after just six games?
Not a chance. Antonio German was the standout player in attack and still looks like the Kerala striker most likely to score but the rest – Kervens Belfort, Duckens Nazon, Michael Chopra, Farukh Choudhary and even Mohammed Rafique, who impressed in patches last season, have failed to have a proper shot at goal and don't cut it at the moment, even in a league where marquee and foreign players are past their best and slowing down.
One match without having a single shot on goal was bad enough but failing to sting the goalie's palms in two consecutive matches points to serious flaws – either Coppell's plan for the attack is not working or the attack just is not good enough. Or both, which would, well, be the worst news for Blasters' fans.
The optimists might point out that it has just been two matches and that the reactions are more noise than substance, but it's difficult to see a way back for this team.
Something is got to give – a couple of signings, a tactical switch or Rino Anto coming back into the squad; if not, the men from down south might as well hand themselves the wooden spoon right now.
The state of Kerala, with its football crazy masses really does deserve better than this hotchpotch.
