Nicolas Anelka believes his side should have had a couple of penalties against FC Pune City

Nicolas Anelka addressed the media after the game (Image Source: ISL)

Mumbai City FC failed to find a way past a stern FC Pune City side as David Platt’s men walked away from the D.Y. Patil Stadium with a valuable point. Mumbai City FC were left frustrated despite being the dominant of the two sides and coming closest to break the deadlock on a couple of occasions.

The draw keeps Mumbai City FC outside the top four but just three points shy of the top spot with five games to play. Mumbai City FC Head Coach Nicolas Anelka was disappointed with the result but felt his side were denied two clear penalties in the game.

“I am not happy with the result. I felt we should have won the game. I think we should have had two penalties which weren’t given by the referee. Kuttymani had a great chance in the second half to win it but couldn’t take it. So I feel we were unlucky again today,” said Anelka as he dissected the ninety minutes of play.

We must do more in the next games: Nicolas Anelka

However the Frenchman refused to dwell too much on those calls by the referee C.K. Srikrishnan and believed his side will have to do more to convert these draws into wins in the matches to come.

“We haven’t enjoyed a lot of luck in the last two games, but that’s a part and parcel of the game. The fact is that we haven’t managed to win the two games and we must do more in our game against Goa to get a better result and that is what we will be focused on now,” stated the former Chelsea striker.

Nicolas Anelka admitted that he thought of bringing Sunil Chhetri on in the final quarter of the game but eventually decided against risking the Indian forward.

“I obviously thought about bringing Sunil on, but it would have been a huge risk considering he played ninety minutes just a day earlier. We still have five games to go and we need him to play in those matches. And I always believed we could get a goal in the dying minutes even without him, it didn’t happen that way, but I am happy that we have Sunil available for the next game,” revealed the Frenchman.

Nicolas Anelka explains his formation and tactics

The way Mumbai City FC set up at the start of the game got everyone scratching their heads as Nicolas Anelka started on the left and more surprisingly Frederic Piquionne started in the hole behind Subhash Singh who played in the striker’s role.

Nicolas Anelka disclosed that he started on the left primarily to protect his left back Keegan Periera who had a shocker of a game against FC Pune City last time. “I started on the left as I wanted to protect Keegan. He had a tough game against Pune last time but today he did well. I feel we did very well defensively today and in that aspect our strategy worked well. However after Brandon’s injury we had to change our set-up, but we coped well,” said the Mumbai City FC gaffer.

Nicolas Anelka was pleased with the overall display and how his side controlled the game. “I felt we controlled the game well today. We knew they were going to sit back and try to hit us on the break, but I feel were prepared for that and dominated proceedings. In the next game we will try and do better offensively,” Anelka said as he concluded his post-match thoughts.