Shots, goals, dribbles - How good has Liston Colaco been for ATK Mohun Bagan?

Like gold in a furnace. There is little doubt that Liston Colaco has been top-notch for ATK Mohun Bagan this season. With 11 goal contributions in 19 matches, he has been the knight in shining armour for the Mariners who had to deal with their fair share of injuries to key players including Roy Krishna and Hugo Boumous. In fact, no other domestic player has been involved in more goals than the Indian international.

From scoring outrageous free-kicks to stunning screamers, Colaco has done it all in this campaign. His set-piece goal against Bengaluru FC will be played over and over again in the years to come as it was a prototype of a perfect attempt. With his knuckle-ball technique (often used by Cristiano Ronaldo), the ball rose at an optimum height, swerved, and then dipped just enough in the nick of time to find the top corner.

Colaco has the audacity to try his luck from distance and has struck 12 times from outside the box, with two of them finding the back of the net. The one against FC Goa is definitely a goal of the contender as the strike completely bamboozled Dheeraj Singh under the sticks. To put matters into perspective, no player has attempted more shots in this season than Colaco.

Colaco has been nothing short of a nightmare for defenders as he is quick and skilful in one-on-one situations. He has completed 29 dribbles this season which is the best amongst Indian players and is just seven short of Javi Hernandez who leads the chart with 36.

However, as earlier mentioned, the 23-year-old is gold, but still in a furnace. He has grown massively under Juan Ferrando but has still has to refine himself to be considered in the ivy league of the Greg Stewarts or Adrian Luna. Against Hyderabad FC, he was adjudged as the man of the match for a goal and an assist, but that cannot foil the fact that he missed two clear cut scoring opportunities. He has shown quite an improvement from last year when he was at Hyderbad FC but is still quite far off from being lethal in front of goal. To further simplify, he has missed eight big chances in this season, the joint-highest with teammate Manvir Singh. This highlights that although Colaco's goals are a treat to the eyes, his finishing needs to be improved by leaps and bounds, as is the case with every Indian forward.

(Stat Courtesy: Opta Jeev)