Despite having qualified for the semi-finals, Mumbai City FC coach, Alexandre Guimaraes is in no mood to provide freebies to his opponents at this juncture of the tournament. The men in blue will host second placed, Delhi Dynamos FC in Saturday’s Indian Super League encounter.
“We have to continue to do what we have done well. For us no matter what, it’s an important game. We want to finish with maximum points. We’re not going to rest any players tomorrow. The players who are 100% fit will play.”
“We had a ten-day gap and the players know that. We hope that tomorrow everything goes well with them,” he added.
Mumbai have had more shots on goal than their opponents in the last four games. The Costa Rican, though, was keen to point out that his side’s attack and defence have been working in unison.
“We have been very offensive but we’ve also been defending well. We still are the team who have conceded the least number of goals (8). We have to keep this mentality. Tomorrow is another game that we’re going to try and play well in both the aspects,” he said.
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Asked about how his team dealt with the ten-day gap after having played 3 games in 7 days, Alexandre said, “We gave the players the rest that we had planned. We have Plan A, B and C and we followed our usual programme after our match against Chennai.”
“We gave certain players days off as planned and then we started our preparation. This week was really great and 90% of the players are fit to play and they have to play,” he stated.
The last time Mumbai played Delhi in the capital city, the match ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw and Guimaraes is expecting more of the same.
“I think it can be an open game like our earlier match. We saw yesterday night (between FC Goa and Chennaiyin FC), when teams are liberated, they can just play without too much concern. I hope that tomorrow, our fans support us and hopefully we can give them a good game.”
The coach touched upon the ease with which his players have adjusted to playing in different positions and systems.
“I am very pleased with the players, no matter which combination we tried during the whole season, all of them understood and tried to perform at their best. We have played some players in different positions and used different models and I think this is very good for us.”
“This is very good for us because we can change our system in the same game from one to another. In today’s football, this is very important,” Guimaraes concluded.
