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Jamshedpur FC head coach Owen Coyle: Want to give fans a team they can be proud of
Jamshedpur FC head coach Owen Coyle heavily backed his players for the commitment shown in the campaign, even when the odds were against them. The Men of Steel will be up against Odisha FC in their Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2021-22 match at the Athletic Stadium, Bambolim.
Jamshedpur FC are at the pole position in the league table right now, with 37 points from 18 matches, which includes 11 wins and four draws. They have already qualified for the semi-finals and are the frontrunners to win the Hero ISL 2021-22 League Winners’ Shield.
Coyle addressed the media during the pre-match press conference ahead of Friday’s game.
Here are the excerpts from the press conference:
Odisha FC is an attack-minded team, what are your thoughts on them? Do you fear any complacency since they are already out of the top-four race?
The Odisha FC game will be very challenging. For many reasons possibly, obviously for our own intentions and our own agenda in terms of trying to win enough points to finish in the number one position and win the shield, which would be a remarkable achievement. To do that, we have to play very well against dangerous opponents (Odisha FC).
Odisha FC showed (character) last time against ATK Mohun Bagan, where they could easily have won the game, but it was tied to a draw. So we have to be very focused, very concentrated, and knowing that they have wonderful talents, some very good attack-minded players.
So we’ve been very respectful of that. But, we have shown that if we’re at our very best, we can win games and that’s what we have to do, we have to go really positive and try and win three points from a very tough game.
Mobashir Rahman will be missing out on the upcoming match due to suspension. What are your thoughts on that?
We have players missing each and every game. We don’t make anything of it. Even when we came out in the first game after the COVID (break), we hadn’t trained for 14 days. We had four players missing. That’s exactly what we do at Jamshedpur FC, but we don’t make a song and dance about it. Nothing. We are focused on what we can do.
We control the stuff we can control and that’s making sure that those who are available are ready to give everything they have got. So, if you look at that game last time, last game against Hyderabad, five players were missing. My skipper was about 60% fit, he took a painkiller injection to play because he wanted to be there playing with his team. We go there, we put a smile on our face and we try and win football games
The fans celebrated a lot when Jamshedpur FC qualified for the semi-finals, but they are still hungry for more. What does that tell us about the mentality of the fans and also the team?
It says that the fans have the exact same mentality as the players, as the staff, as everybody at our football club. We want to win, we want to be winners. To do that, we have to register more points.
We’ve all done it together, we’re aware of the backing. Apart from the fans, the messages are getting filtered through. They are letting us know how excited they are, how supportive they are.
What we want to do is to give those fans a team they can be proud of, but we want to see the job through, you know, we don’t want to come this far and stop. We want to keep on, you know, it’s a great achievement, of course, for the club to be in the semi-finals for the very first time in their history.
Daniel Chima Chukwu has started every game since he joined Jamshedpur FC. Is there any possibility of giving him rest and fielding Jordan Murray instead?
Chima has been outstanding and that’s why I brought him to the club. When you think back, people perceived opinions and everything else, and that’s fine. But, I am a head coach, I make decisions for the best interests of Jamshedpur FC. And I knew that I wanted to change something, I wanted something different.
And Daniel Chima was everything I wanted in the football club, for the way we play. We did that, we bought a wonderfully talented player and a real team player. Somebody who works his socks off.