Coach Albert Roca Spoke About The Team’s Performance, Refereeing Decisions and More After The Clash Against Aizawl FC…

On the performance of the team…

It’s not a good result; we wanted the three points which I think we deserved because our team put in a lot of effort but apart from the first fifteen minutes where we took time to settle into the game, we controlled majority of what was happening on the field. In the second half we created a lot of chances and pushed the opponents into their half and that is why I think we should have won.

On Jhingan’s goal being disallowed…

We are not happy with the refereeing in the game, and I say this not because of one decision. Throughout the game we had a lot of instances where we could have got a penalty at crucial goal-scoring positions. Later when we scored a legitimate goal from a set-piece, our goal was disallowed as it was judged a foul on the opponent goalkeeper.

But we have to accept the decision and that’s how the game is. Especially today I believed we should have won, but unfortunately we have to move on and accept what was decided by the referee.

On rotating between the Blues’ attacking options…

We have a big squad and I have to give a chance to all our strikers. We have seen them do well in training and some of the others deserve to start as well.

Vineeth is a very good football player and has shown his consistency, however he too found it hard to get into the score sheet in the last few games and that is why we thought it would be good to bring in a change in this game. I was also very happy with Daniel’s work as he fought for the ball throughout the game and did very well. We have three strikers and all of them are good, so we will look to rotate them through the season.

On the defensive performance and Aizawl’s goal…

I think it was a goal that caught us off-guard, we have been working on our defending and in this situation we should have been better with our positioning. But credit to Aizawl they scored a good goal and to come back from it was not easy.

On the attitude of the players…

Our players have shown good attitude, what we have lacked is a little bit of luck. We have been doing things right and creating a lot of chances, but the ball doesn’t want to go in and that is football; there isn’t much we can do. I cannot say anything to the players, nor can I go in and play, I am proud of my players and their performance. We cannot be disheartened, we have to go ahead and do our best in Mumbai.

On the team’s form in the last few games…

We started off well with nine points, but had a rough patch in between. But if you see, in the last two games we worked really hard and deserved to win but we didn’t as we dropped 4 points. What’s important for us now is not to pay attention to other teams, but to see ourselves and make changes to whatever it is we can do to score more goals.

Believe me every coach in such a situation will tell you this, because it is true we are a quality side and there is nothing we can do but to look forward and work harder in the next game and not blame anyone for anything.

On players returning from injury for the Mumbai game…

Johnson is not ready for the Mumbai game yet as we’ll need more time to get him back to full fitness. But Juan will be ready for the game as his suspension is now over. We are trying our best to bring Rino and Chhuantea back in the team because they are important and I believe that we will be a little stronger with them.