'Most of the players who played the last game will be on the bench', says Ivan Vukomanovic

Kerala Blasters are enduring a challenging phase in the 2024 Indian Super League, managing only one win and a draw from their eight matches so far. Their solitary victory occurred against FC Goa in Kochi on February 25, nearly 40 days ago, while their last away triumph was against Mohun Bagan on December 27, almost 100 days back.

The team has been plagued by injuries since the season's onset, exacerbating their struggles. Tomorrow, at 7:30 pm, they face NorthEast United FC in Guwahati. Ahead of the match, club coach Ivan Vukomanovic and goalkeeper Lara Sharma addressed the media in the prematch press conference.

Q. What are your  thoughts the game tomorrow?

Ivan Vukomanovic: It's always tough with an away game, especially when it's far away from Kochi. Flying and arriving here can be challenging. Especially considering the fact that we've played two more games in the last seven days, with a heavy away game in Jamshedpur. There will be a couple of changes and a couple of guys making their debut. Seeing some young players taking their first steps in the ISL is exciting, and we want to give them playing time for their development. Also, getting some players fresh with fresh legs on the pitch is crucial because it's exhausting to play many games in a short period.

Q. Is it true you've traveled without your foreign players?

Ivan Vukomanovic: There are a couple of them with us, but might not take part in tomorrow's game. There's no need for that because the travel to Jamshedpur was exhausting, 14 hours back and forth. It caused us to miss practice and lose a couple of players due to injuries. So, some of them need to refresh, and some need to rest. We want to have fresh players for tomorrow's game, so we left a couple of these guys in Kochi and didn't bring them along. Instead, we brought some young players from the B team.

Q. How important is the game given that you have already qualified for the playoffs?

Lara Sharma: we have already qualified, but we are taking these games seriously and we are focused because these two games will give us positive energy for the playoff games.

Q. What is the update on the return of Adrian Luna?

Ivan Vukomanovic: Luna, Diamantakos, and Fedor Cernych are not with us. Most of the players who played in the last game will be on the bench. Playing these kinds of games in the short term is too risky, especially since some of them already have some problems. It feels like we're still in Jamshedpur because last week we traveled from Kochi, which is a 14-hour journey for us. Then we stayed there, got back to Kochi, didn't have a training session, and had to play against Bengal the next morning.

Q. Is Vibin Mohanan available for tomorrow's game?

Ivan Vukomanovic: He's with us now, but he played two games in the last couple of days. Before that, two nights before the game in Jamshedpur, he arrived from Malaysia because he was with the national team. Many of them, like Fedor, arrived two nights before the game in Jamshedpur from Europe. They were flying around Europe playing games. Jeakson also arrived from national team camp. So they are kind of exhausted, especially now with all these travels and everything and three games in that short period. Speaking about the people who are organizing these fixtures, you know, they should take into consideration these things; otherwise, they're just destroying the teams and especially the players even before the end of the season. So, it puts some teams in a tough situation later if they have to play in playoffs. Actually, with these kinds of fixtures, you're destroying the teams even before they play playoffs. Sometimes I have a feeling like they don't care about the clubs or the players, or how they feel. I don't want to use that as an excuse, but it's a challenge we face.