Malé: Indian National Football team head coach Igor Stimac asserted that he would not be sticking to any specific strategy but would rather be changing it to get favourable results ahead of the onset of their SAFF Championships.
“We will be playing a style which will bring us results,” he averred. Referring to the two matches played on the inaugural day, the Head Coach said, “There was one counter-attack by Nepal in their match against Maldives, and they won the game despite Maldives being the better side. We don’t know what each game will bring to us on the plate. We will adapt to everything that is thrown at us.”
Talking about the preparations ahead of the competition , Stimac seemed hopeful of success.
We are trying to provide all necessary information to our players about our opposition, and motivate ourselves. We came here four days before the tournament, and we have trained on artificial and natural grass. We are taking good care of the players, and explaining to them the possible situations,” Stimac informed.
“The players know what I’m expecting from them, and what their duties are. So I’m very confident and excited about this tournament and I really expect to enjoy this tournament and not to have any nervousness. We are determined to represent India in a good manner and deliver what is expected from us on the pitch.”
India will ply their first trade against cross border rivals Bangladesh, who have already bagged three points after their first encounter against Sri Lanka. Stimac admitted that the absence of Sandesh Jhingan and Rowlin Borges is to be widely felt along with Aashique Kuruniyan who is injure.
“It’s not just Sandesh alone whom we are missing. Borges has been absent for a while for the National Team, and even Ashique. But we just cannot think of that at the moment. We wish them a fast recovery and expect them to join us as soon as possible,” Stimac expressed.
“But we have other players here, and we need to have enough capacity to cover all the positions. Sandesh was a leader, very vocal, and he held the team together. But we need to replace him together as a team, making an effort throughout 90 minutes,” the coach explained.
Although with hopes of a positive outcome, the talismanic Blues’ captain Sunil Chettri admitted that the team has some areas that needs improvement as he thinks none of the games will be easy for them, not even Nepal.
“If we’re talking solely about the two games which we played against Nepal, we have to improve in a lot of areas. And that has already been talked and conveyed to us by our Head coach, and the whole coaching system,” he quipped.
“We know we could have done better in Nepal as players. And this is just me talking as a player. And whatever things that we had to work on were conveyed to us right after the game. And also now, with every passing day, we realised that every other team who probably are in the same region are also improving – which means that if we play against them, we cannot afford to be 90 percent. Not just against Nepal, but in a game against any one of them. That is one of the biggest learnings that we have learned playing Nepal in Nepal.”
“And hopefully, we will take it in our stride. Taking that forward to this tournament, we realise that there will not be a single easy game for us.”
