It was ATK Mohun Bagan’s first game of the new Indian Super League season and they once again failed to convert their chances and lost the game 2-1 against Chennaiyin at the Salt Lake Stadium. Head coach Juan Ferrando who has been criticized time and again ever since their elimination from the AFC Cup finds himself in a spot of bother after this loss.
The Spaniard rued the missed opportunities that came his team’s way but unfortunately the players were once again not clinical enough and the game once again ended in a defeat for the Green and Maroons. It was Manvir Singh who struck first and gave ATK Mohun Bagan the lead before Kwame Karikari converted a penalty to restore parity and also provided a fine assist to see Rahim Ali score the winner.
Ferrando at the post match press conference shares how conceding a goal drops the morale of the defence and they start making mistakes. So it is important to back them but also to look at solutions to improve and react properly after this loss. “When the team conceded the goals, the players at those moments lost confidence leading to misplaced passes, missing opportunities. And on such occasions it is important to tell them that it is okay and this is football, there are these moments that will happen but it is necessary to react and find the solution. It is not that hard to change the situation because we could’ve been better at marking, creating chances, and finding spaces,” Ferrando stated.
New signing Ashique Kuruniyan has been a livewire for the Mariners but the sad part of ther story is that his crosses were not converted by the forwardline and hence it later came to bite them back. Ferrando shared how goalscoring and taking chances has been a recurring problem for them. He suggests the team to keep going and keep working hard.
“When we miss the chances, this is a recurring problem. When we have 5-6 chances, it is necessary to put three of them in the goal, and in this match we faced a huge problem in doing that. This is the reality, we have chances, we finish the play, the team uses the space, creates the space, but then the opponent wins a penalty, and then scores. It is necessary to keep going and keep working,” the Spaniard admits of the goalscoring problem.
Speaking about the turning point of the game, Ferrando highlighted how the penalty changed the game entirely as his players lost confidence and it was necessary to change the style of play. “After the penalty, things took a different mode for the players as the mentality changed, the players started to lose confidence, it was necessary to change (the style of play), try something different, support them. Sometimes, it is necessary to change, this situation is definitely not good for them, and 100% there will be changes in the mentality,” he concluded.
ATK Mohun Bagan will next travel to Kochi to face the Kerala Blasters in their second fixture on October 16th as they search for the first win of this season.
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