Atletico de Kolkata are doing most things right in this Indian Super League, except one.
Sitting pretty atop the leaderboard with W W D W D in their five games so far, the table toppers are in urgent need of channelizing their aggression and not let it drool over into referee's book.
Star Kolkata striker Fikru Teferra Lemessa and manager Antonio Lopez Habas have already received marching orders, and Kolkata will be testing their luck if they don't pull the strings and stop short of being overaggressive.
Fikru and Habas were banned by AIFF for two and four games respectively as punishment for unruly behaviour in the game against FC Goa, who also lost their star player Robert Pires for two matches after his tunnel altercation with Habas.
In fact, Atletico, arguably the best team on show in the ISL so far, have the most number of bookings in their name (11 yellow cards, 2 red cards and 82 fouls) - a record they will want to get rid of soon.
"Whatever happened in Goa is a matter of the past," Kolkata defender Josemi told a media conference ahead of the match against Kerala Blasters, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Apart from crossing the line at times, the Sourav Ganguly-owned Atletico de Kolkata have ticked all boxes in the form of most points (11), second in the list of most goals (9), taking most shots at target (32) and the most number of assists, apart from an average ball possession of 47.4 percent, 976 accurate passes, 54 crosses and 209 interceptions.
Those numbers are enough to show Kolkata's aggressive nature, and it only shows them in poor light when they turn the beautiful game into an out-and-out contact sport. How about a few pearls of wisdom from Dada at the end of the day!
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