Olympics Begin In
:
Days
:
Hours
:
Mins
 
Secs
Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

ISL

Playing attractive football in knockouts doesn't matter: Ivan Vukomanovic

Before the eliminator game in Bengaluru, head coaches Ivan Vukomanovic and Simon Grayson, as well as players Jessel Carneiro and Rohit Kumar, addressed the media.

Playing attractive football in knockouts doesnt matter: Ivan Vukomanovic
X

The game atmosphere ( Via ISL media )

By

Aswathy Santhosh

Published: 2 March 2023 9:19 AM GMT

Indian Super League 2022-23 season's group stages are over. The playoffs kick off tomorrow with a thrilling match between fierce rivals Bengaluru FC and Kerala Blasters FC. For both groups of followers, the game means much more than just being an elimination round.

Captain of Kerala Blasters FC, Jessel Carneiro started with reassuring that the team is well aware of what they want. "Everybody knows the position we are in and what we want from the next match. We are focused for the next match."

Jessel also mentioned that fighting spirit and intelligence matters a lot in these kind of games. "I think the quality alone doesn't matter. You should also show a fighting spirit. It's a rivalry and from my experience, you have to be intelligent, and not just pump up yourself and just go."

After the last game, Ivan Vukomanovic mentioned that the quality of training ground allotted for Kerala Blasters in Bengaluru was poor. However he says that it won't be a setback for them.

"You have to adapt with it. When you go for away games, and there will be a couple of times when you don't get the say on normal quality ground provided for your training session. Of course, the league has to manage those things for the for the future, because it is very important for the improvement not only teams who are traveling, but also for the domestic teams to have quality training centers."

Ivan Vukomanovic talks about how having possession or playing beautiful football doesn't really matter in knockout stages. "Tomorrow it's an interesting game. In the last game against Bengaluru, we had the huge possession of almost 70%, but at the end we lost and it doesn't really matter.

"In the knockout phase, nobody cares if you're playing beautiful football or not, now it's about the result. So sometimes it must be ugly. We'll see how it goes on the pitch. We want to play the way we always played."

Ivan concluded by providing an update on the unavailability of players, "Only Ivan Kalyuzhnyi is unavailable due to suspension. All the other players are in good shape except Sandeep, he's done the surgery and is recovering".

Bengaluru FC have been on a good run with a winning streak and coach Simon Grayson says that beating Kerala Blasters will help them mentally. "We'll be playing with confidence because we've been on such a good run. We've we will go in to the game with really strong spirit, but not overconfident. But this is a different game, it's a one off game."

In the last game between the teams, Adrian Luna probably the most dangerous player of Kerala was tightly marked. But Simon says that Luna alone is not the danger. "We've done our work this week, and we mentioned what Luna can do. They've got some other fantastic players like Sahal, Dimitrios and many others. We understand the basic principles of how they've played from the two games we've been involved against them.

"But the games I've watched and the work that we've done, if Kerala come up with a different game plan, we have to deal with it and adjust to it. We respect the opposition, we do the work on the opposition, we know their strengths and weaknesses."

Midfielder Rohit Kumar started from the bench at the beginning of the season but now he is a regular feature. However Rohit insists that his role doesn't matter. "My job is to work hard and train well. Whenever I get a chance I'll try to make use of it and prove myself to help the team in whichever way I can."

Simon Grayson concluded by providing an info about Alan Costa. "He's flying back from Brazil as we speak now. So he could be in the squad tomorrow, we'll have to assess where he is tomorrow."


.

Next Story