Chennaiyin FC head coach Bozidar Bandovic addressed the media ahead of their game against Bengaluru FC on Wednesday, 26th January at the GMC Athletic Stadium, Bambolim.
Chennaiyin FC goalkeeper Vishal Kaith got infected with Covid and wasn’t available for the last game and is also set to miss out in tomorrow’s game. Coach Bozidar gave a quick update on him and the terrible situation in the camp.
“I cannot tell you exactly the date when Vishal Kaith will recover, but he is okay. It’s been 5 to 6 days since he was found positive, so this is the situation.
“When you don’t do the recovery or training session, it’s difficult for all the teams and not just us. Probably yes, we will have our first training session today. We are still waiting for the PCR test results that we did in the morning to see if we can play tomorrow. I hope everything will be okay.”
In the previous few matches, there has been a trend of the absence of Chhangte in the starting eleven. Coach Bandovic answered if it is a tactical approach or if there are any other reasons behind it.
“No, there are no other reasons. We always think and take the good decisions for the team ahead of the personal interest of individual players. Indeed, you can always hear rumors about him since his contract expires soon, he needs to stay in the team, but ultimately it’s his decision where he wants to play in the future. So there are no other reasons behind him not playing.”
Gaffer Bozidar Bandovic gave his verdict on how he rates the performance of goalkeeper Debjit Majumdar in the last few matches and also what he expects from him in tomorrow’s match.
“Debjit’s performance has been good whenever he got the opportunity to play. He helped the team, and it’s very important. He is focused and working hard, and I feel he will give his best for the team in case he plays tomorrow.”
This season some teams have played more games while some teams have played lesser games; this is due to the postponement of the games as players were infected with Covid in certain camps. Bandovic spoke about how do you see the points table shaping up.
“We have played twelve games, and we can’t say anything for the other teams. We didn’t train or make a recovery, and we aren’t prepared for the game. I feel this is not in our hands, and it’s the same for the other teams; we will just go and play the game. So anything can happen, and at this moment, all the teams have the same problems probably.
“It will be difficult for us because we are here for around five months inside in our rooms. Every time there is a game, we can’t do anything. I feel it will be like this till the last game of the season; let’s see what happens because some teams have played lesser games. Everything is possible, and it’s not easy to say anything right now.”
Now that Chennaiyin FC is back in the winning form, Bozidar spoke about the positives he will take from the last game as the team is gearing up to face Bengaluru FC tomorrow.
“The first positive thing was that we started the game very well, and we had the chance to score. The second positive thing was we scored two goals and turned around the game. We showed great effort and character; also, it gave us confidence now that we face a very good team in Bengaluru FC. It was good for the players and the team as we won a game which we were losing. Again, it’s very difficult to prepare in the current situation, but we will try to give our best in the next game.”
Bandovic spoke on how he rates Lukasz Gikiewicz’s performance after he came on in the game in the last game against NorthEast United FC.
“I think the last game he was playing well, and he helped the team. I will see if I can give him some more chances. He has been doing well coming in from the bench since he scored the goal. I have his time in the last game, and I hope to do some rotation and give him more opportunities because he deserves it.”
Although Chennaiyin FC won the last game, they failed to control the game at the end of the match. In these current circumstances, how will Bandovic and his team rectify those mistakes, and how will he prepare the Super Machans for the game? This is what head to say regarding it,
“I agree that we didn’t play well in the last part of the game. We didn’t control it, but again Koman and Ariel didn’t have many training sessions, and they also had some problems before the game, so I had to protect them. Of course, this is not only the reason. We should have kept hold of the ball and passed the ball quicker.
“We weren’t good in the defensive set pieces, and they had put pressure on us. We need to improve on our marking because there were some parts when we almost conceded the goal in the last game. So these are the improvements I want to take before facing Bengaluru FC.”
Coach Bosko was asked how frustrating it is for him to see that day after day; his players are not scoring goals. Bandovic shared his views on it and spoke about the problem the team is facing.
“My view is that this happens many times, now we have these players, and we need to go together till the end of the season. Then we can see if the team can be made stronger with me or with any other coach. Also, if then, we can bring a player who can put the ball in the back of the net. Also, there is another problem now that we have a game every 3 to 4 days, we can’t train every day because we might risk the players getting injured.
“This is a problem we have, and now we need to help the players bring their confidence back. Also, they need to be more relaxed as we don’t want to put pressure on them and have a clearer mind. It’s straightforward, but small things make a big difference, and we need to see how it will be in the upcoming games. It’s our weakness, and we hope to improve on it.”
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