ISL 2019: Kerala Blasters FC 2018-19 Season recap and report

Kerala Blasters FC is a football club based in Kochi, Kerala which have been playing in the Indian Super League (ISL) since its inception in 2014. Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar had previously owned the club. The 2018-19 ISL season wasn't a particularly successful season for the club as it managed just 15 points throughout the campaign, finishing at a lowly 9th position. Here is a throwback to what went wrong for them last season.

ISL 2018-19 Recap for Kerala Blasters FC

Kerala Blasters started their 2018–19 Hero Indian Super League campaign with a 2-0 away victory over ATK in September 2018 but failed to win another fixture for the rest of the year with five losses and six draws to their name. Their lowest point of the season was arguably their 1-6 away defeat to Mumbai City FC in December 2018.

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The second half of the season saw no improvement in their performances as the Blasters failed to win a single game till February 2019 when they beat an equally struggling Chennayin FC, 3-0 on February 15 in a home game. This ended up being the club's last victory of the campaign as they could only salvage three draws and two defeats from there on.

As a whole, one victory apiece at home and away summed up Kerala Blasters’ poor campaign.

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What do stats say?

Kerala Blasters managed to score just 18 goals throughout the campaign with an average of just one goal per game. They had taken 76 shots on target with a conversion rate of a mere 6.64%. Slavisa Slojanovic was their highest scorer with four goals in 17 appearances.

Their defence wasn't up to the mark either with just four clean sheets in the entire campaign.

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Transfers around?

New signing Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem joined the club from Indian Arrows in June 2018 and was slotted in straight into the line-up as a goalkeeper. Also, Slavisa Slojanovic came in from the Serbian club Radnicki Nis to have an immediate impact for the club.

Ian Hume, the Canadian forward who had two spells with Kerala Blasters, proved to be a massive loss for the club as he shifted base to the now defunct FC Pune City.

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2019 ISL: Aim Higher?

Kerala Blasters would be aiming for a better campaign in the upcoming season as the two-time finalists would be hoping for a major improvement this time around.