Manolo Marquez led Hyderabad FC are comfortably placed in the third position in the table, after drawing with the FC Goa in their last game. Nizams are currently on five games unbeaten run and they look to continue their form when they face Red and Gold Brigade in their next game.
On the result in their last game
No, I am not happy with the result, because when you play a game you always look to get 3 points, but it’s better to get a draw than losing a game. At the start of the game they were better than us, the strange thing for me is that they have 4 points less than us. 1-1 is a good score, but we try to win every game.
On venues playing a part on the game plans
ISL has put some games on the different grounds for the second leg of fixtures, which means that the condition of all grounds are not the same. Last season, we had Tilak Maidan as our home ground, the grass of tilak is not as good as the grass of Bambolim or Fatorda. But, the game plan doesn’t change because of the venues.
On importance of winning against bottom placed team like East Bengal and consolidating the position in top 4
I think all of us agree that winning any game in this league is difficult. For example, yesterday when ATKMB was leading 3-1 in 84th minute we thought that they are easily going to win the game but Northeast made it 3-2 so till the end there was a chance of game being draw and the day before that Bengaluru FC played a draw with Jamshedpur FC. All coaches believe that anyone can beat anyone in this league, so we don’t think that East Bengal is in the last place we can easily beat them. We have to play with our style and we will try to win the game.
On having psycological advantage for players as they are playing bottom placed team like East Bengal
No, you have to play against all the teams, it’s true that we are playing East Bengal who are not in a very good form, but if you look at the three draws. They played it against Chenniayin, Jamshedpur and Kerala. Even they played 4-3 with FC Goa in that game they had the good possibility to win as well. We know they have good players, but the situation is very difficult for them. We have to be completely focused on our style of play, we shouldn’t even think it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be tough game for sure.
On the season of East Bengal so far
Sorry, but I am the coach of Hyderabad FC. I am telling it because all the questions are about East Bengal. I am not the coach of East Bengal. I respect East Bengal a lot as an opponent, but I can tell you that they started the season very late compared to other clubs, they started to sign the players when all other clubs finished their signings.
On the development of the defensive trio of Sana, Akash and Ashish
The question is not being asked about why Ashish won’t be playing next game, but no one acknowledged the fact that when Ortiz pushed a player he got a two-match ban whereas when Ashish Rai got kicked no action was taken against the player who kicked him. It’s not just him even if he’s a player of Hyderabad FC action should be taken against him. Even the refrees show yellow card for red-card offences, at least after the game we should take action against any player who does this kind of dangerous actions but it is not being taken every time.
Answering to your question Sana, Akash and Ashish they are more or less in the same form as last season, sometimes second season gets difficult but their consistency is an advantage for the team, but we need to make sure that they are consistent throughout the season.
On consistent performance of the team so far
I am happy, I told you in the beginning that we expect a consistent season and now more or less consistent. I don’t like to speak about if we deserve the more points because we only remember the games which we think we deserve more for example the first game against Chennai we deserved more points. At the same time I think Bengaluru would have drawn against us. Sometimes you loose the game that you don’t deserve and sometimes you win the game that you don’t deserve too. I think it’s very common in a league where you play 20 games.
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