ISL 2022-23: Who is Simon Grayson? All you need to know about Bengaluru FC's new head coach

ISL 2022-23 season is almost upon us with the transfer market on in full swing, it's been two seasons on the trot since Bengaluru FC played a knockout game in the ISL, after that semi-final defeat in Kolkata in 2019, things have turned upside down for the club.

In the 2020-21 season club sacked famous Spanish tactician Carles Cuadrat, and then appointed German gaffer Marco Pezzaiuoli for next season. Even under his regime club fell short to feast the playoffs.

As now, ISL clubs look forward to starting pre-season for the upcoming footballing calendar, Bengaluru FC has announced the appointment of new English coach Simon Grayson.

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Who is Simon Grayson?

Born on 16th December, 1969, Simon Grayson fared as a right-back for an array of English clubs namely Leicester City, Leeds United, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport County, Notts County, Bradford City and Blackpool.

In 2004, he was appointed as player-manager of Blackpool football club where initially he managed the reserve team and escaped the relegation.

Experienced right-back who was on the verge of hanging his boots was named as the permanent manager of the club, after the departure of the first team head coach, Grayson retired as a player, as he aimed to focus more on the managerial side.

Grayson had a remarkable start to his managerial career as Blackpool lost only a single game out of the first 14 games. Blackpool reached the fourth round of League Cup for the first time in 35 years under him.

During the 2008 Christmas, Grayson earned himself a move to the Yorkshire club Leeds United, where Leeds defeated Manchester United at Old Trafford 1-0 for the first time since 1981 and they reached the third round of the FA Cup where they narrowly bowed down to Liverpool.

Leeds even gained promotion to the championship by finishing second in the League One. After consecutive losses in 2012, followed by a 4-1 defeat to Birmingham City the club dismissed Grayson as their manager.

In 2013 Grayson paved his way towards Preston North End where they escaped from relegation in League One, and in the following season gained promotion to the championship. Then he went on to manage more English clubs like Sunderland and Bradford City. Before joining Bengaluru FC this year he managed another lower divison English club Fleetwood United.

ISL 2022-23: Style of Play:

Simon Grayson is a typical English manager who likes to play with 3 center-backs. His preferred formation is 3-5-2. The 3-5-2 formation shifts to 5-3-2 while defending, it's a formation where full-backs play an increasingly important role in initiating attacks. It is a style of play where one can hurt the opponent with a quick counterattack.

The presence of Prabir Das and the Versatile Naorem Roshan Singh at the wings will help Simon easily implement this tactic in the blues camp. Apart from Roshan and Prabir, there are many pacemasters in Bengaluru FC such as Udanta Singh, and Leon Augustine who can be a good fit for this formation.

But the question arises that will he implement this formation in Bengaluru FC? considering the fact that he always managed the lower ranked clubs in the England where results matter the most, but Bengaluru FC is a club that always aims to be at the top of the pyramid and they have been playing possession based football since their inception.

Another important factor is that BFC is a club that is enriched with quality Indian players and the football in England is more physical than India. It all depends on the coach whether he will stick to his style of play or he will play according to the Indian conditions.

What can fans expect?

History speaks in favour of both the club and the coach. BFC is known to make comebacks, at the same time Simon is a coach who has always revived the glory of the clubs that he had managed such as being unbeaten in the first 14 games of Blackpool. Winning against Manchester United for the first time since 1981 as Leeds United manager and there are many more accolades achieved by Grayson.

Even though Bengaluru FC is a club with rich history, last two years has been harsh to them, but with fans back in the stand blues faithful can expect much better perfomance from the team, apart from that BFC has roped in some good players such as Prabir Das, Javi Hernandez and Hira Mondal who can be impactful under the new head-coach.

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