We Never Lost Confidence: Marco Pezzaiuoli

Bengaluru FC head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli said he never lost faith in his team’s abilities despite being on a seven-match winless run in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) that was ended with a 4-2 victory over Chennaiyin FC at the Tilak Maidan stadium in Vasco, Goa on Thursday.

The Blues struck twice in either half to claim just their second victory of the Hero ISL season.

Pezzaiuoli believes his team played well enough to get better results in the previous matches but luck didn’t favour his players.

The German spoke to the media after the win.

Here are the excerpts from the press conference:

Do you think you needed such a match to get your confidence back and also regain momentum? 

We had confidence all the time. I don’t think we played badly in this spell. The worst game we played was against ATK Mohun Bagan tactic wise and it was a 3-3 draw. I think if you win, you feel better. We can now enjoy the new year better. The team has been playing well from the first game. Sometimes we had bad luck. That’s it.

Your substitutions made a big impact on the match. Can you tell the thought process behind the Udanta Singh change and the triple substitution in the second half? 

We changed the formation from four to three at the back. We were trailing 1-0 and I wanted to win the game so I put an extra offensive player. And then we went 2-1 up and it was a good sign. But at half time the opponent also changed tactically and we struggled in the build-up. Then I changed again to four at the back and it was easy and that’s why we won the game.

You took off Ajith early. Did he fail to impress you? 

No. I don’t blame one player. It was a tactical change. We were trailing 0-1 and I don’t wait too long to make a change. That’s why I changed and put an offensive player on the wing.

Will we see Sunil Chhetri starting games more in 2022?

I hope so. He is one of our team members who has a lot of quality. Especially in the last ten days, he trained very well. He was pushing a lot to be a starting member but I decided against it. But he came on and made a good impact for Udanta’s goal and that’s his quality. I think he had 1-2 chances to provide the last pass better. Maybe he is too much a team player. He tried to pass to Cleiton when he could finish himself. But he is a team player and even in training he is pushing the team.