The jeepmen have managed to score a modest 20 goals from their 15 outings, whereas Churchill Brothers top the chart with the highest tally of 35 goals and Dempo following a close second with 30 goals.

Mahindra United coach Derrick Pereira, over the rounds has tried out various combinations with his strikers and thus their goal scoring ability has increased. At the end of ten matches in the league, they had managed mere eleven goals. Having strikers this year like Yusif Yakubu, who was twice the highest scorer in the National Football League, has failed to make a difference to the jeepmen’s marksmanship.

Also the other Ghanaian, Andrews Mensah failed to live up to expectations. Only after Yakubu was out of the squad due to an injury he picked up in an early round match against JCT, did Mensah start scoring after the tenth round match and has only managed five goals for himself.

Mohammed Rafi, who was impressive in the local league last season gave enough promise, but when it came to performing on a bigger platform, the spark was missing from Rafi’s performances. After playing in almost all the matches, he has just managed to score three goals so far in the league.

Manjit Singh too, has been a huge disappointment for the local Red Devils. As an India striker, his experience itself could have lifted the jeepmen but whenever he took the field, Manjit never seemed to be there 100 per cent.

India under-19 team striker Thoi Singh, who even managed to get a contract with Nike, was lost among the crowd of strikers. However, his counterparts Nirmal Chettri is doing wonders for Air-India and Mohan Raj in the Mohun Bagan team are regular features in the starting eleven.

Thoi just got one match to prove himself and he did not disappoint by promptly scoring a goal against Salgaocar. The jeepmen also got Sushil Kumar and Surojit Bose from Mohun Bagan and utilised them only after failing to find solutions from their senior players.

Mahindra United also picked up ONGC’s Tarif Ahmed on loan, who played a few minutes in the famous Nehru Cup victory. He too scored one goal for the jeepmen and later went to Bangalore to play in a tournament for his employers and go out of action with a hamstring injury.

Pereira is not laying too much blame on his Indian players who did not perform well and instead says, “Look at the other teams, their foreign strikers are getting goals for them, which sadly is not happening for Mahindra United.” Churchill’s Nigerian import Odafe Okolie has boosted his team’s performances with 19 goals so far in the league, while his partner up front Mboyo Iyomi, has scored 11 goals so far. For Dempo, Ranty Martins has also reached the two figure score of ten goals.

The coach does not dwell more on it but it was quite evident that when most of the sides had their foreign players in place,

Pereira is peeved that his club, which claims to be most professional outfit with more than a dozen foreigners to pick for their I-League matches, is under performing.

At the end, Mahindra could lay their hands on medio from Ivory Coast_Douhou D Perrie, who did not disappoint and got three goals for them, while their other medio Steven Dias collected two goals for his side.