East Bengal’s assistant coach Tushar Rakshit has done a commendable job after Subhas Bhowmick threw in the towel following the club’s 3-5 defeat in the I-League match against Mohun Bagan. As the stand-in coach, he has helped the team get back to the winning ways. East Bengal won their last two matches — against Viva Kerala and Air India. The former India international, however, prefers to keep a low profile.

“I am yet to mature as a coach. I am learning the tricks of the trade. Full credit to the boys the way they came back from a very difficult situation,” Rakshit told The Indian Express.

The former East Bengal player will now work under Belgian Philippe de Ridder and is happy to play the second fiddle.

“Football coaching is a vast subject and I want to know every aspect of it before taking up the profession on a full-time basis. I want to start from the sub-junior level,” said Rakshit.

As far as East Bengal’s chances in the I-League, he said: “Our defence needs to be more organised and we need someone like Steven Dias or Jayanta Sen in the midfield — with good peripheral vision and passing ability — to create opportunities for the strikers. Yusif Yakubu can feed upfront, but we need him in the penetrative zone to put pressure on opposition defence. As far as our defence is concerned, Uga Okpara has played well in the last two matches and kept things tight. I believe our new coach, de Ridder, will look into the matter and will sort out the problems.”