Bengaluru FC coach Ashley Westwood has only been working in India for three years but he has already made a claim to be labeled one of the finest in the country. After all, he does have three national trophies to show for it, including two league titles, and also bagged the I-League Coach of the Year award for the second time this season.
The Blues lifted the 2016 I-League title with a game to spare this season and also made history by marching into the AFC Cup quarter-finals – a feat no other Indian side has managed this season. Sportskeeda caught up with the Englishman at Puma Social in Bengaluru for an exclusive chat to discuss the season gone by.
Firstly, congratulations on your second I-League title and qualifying for the AFC Cup quarter-finals
Thanks!
Was this I-League title win tougher than the first? Especially since there were fewer fixtures and less room for error.
Yeah, I think so. We thought at the start of the season we had a points tally we would need. Thankfully we got to the points exactly what we thought. When there are only 16 games, you can’t afford to lose too many.
We knew that Mohun Bagan and East Bengal would be strong. Every game was closely contested. Aizawl was new in the league and that’s a tough place to go, Shillong [Lajong] away is also tough and the Goan teams are sometimes strong as well. It was always going to be tricky.
We were going young as well with new players coming in. It was tough but we’ve had three years of stability and that’s probably key.
During mid-season, you were chasing the league leaders when you had a run of seven games without a loss (5 wins and 2 draws). Which was the turning point of the season that saw BFC win the title?
We went and beat East Bengal away. That was a tough game, it was a scrap – a battle! I think when we won that game away the belief picked up. The lads had a sudden belief that they had a real good chance of winning this league.
Thankfully, we had a good run. In the last five games needed to win the league before the Mohun Bagan game, we won four and drew one. We timed our run well. We also managed the AFC Cup well. It all fell into place. We had a lot of preparation and it paid off.
Also read: Bengaluru FC's blueprint leads the way as Indian football reaches a crossroads
How important has player fitness been in this campaign? We’ve seen BFC players bust a lung even after 70-75 minutes in spite of a hectic pre-season and football calendar (the ISL and SAFF Cup were held prior to the I-League season).
It was always going to be tough this year because the lads went to the ISL (Indian Super League). That was an added distraction, if you like, for me as an I-League coach; not in a bad way. It was another hurdle to get over.
We had to get them in before ISL pre-season and give them 4-5 weeks of conditioning work. We had 13 players go in, many of them key players. So we needed to make sure they didn’t get injured.
After getting them back at different times, we had to quickly try and mould them into a team. We had a lot leaving for the SAFF Cup, as you mentioned. We had injuries to Robin Singh, Josh Walker and Eugene broke his leg.
We had many twists and turns but we had a strong squad, we prepared well. And we trusted some young boys and all credit to them; they stepped up, played their part and we had a good collective effort where there wasn’t much of a differential between one player or another.
You keep bringing up youth players playing a part. Apart from winning the title, was that your proudest moment of the season?
I think so; because we unearthed some new talent. Certainly in Daniel, who scored the winner couple of days ago in the AFC Cup. We believe he’s going to be a special player. It was unfortunate he got injured very early on. He was out for 6-7 weeks else he would have had a more impressive season.
Zuala’s done well; he can handle the ball. Ranjan [Singh] is a really good boy and so is Nishu [Kumar]. So we’ve got four 18 to 19-year-olds and they’re all good lads.
Will we be seeing more of these young players in the future in the senior squad?
I think so. It’s thankful that we compete in the AFC Cup because we can put players in and out, we have a little bit more football than anybody else. So we get a chance to earth new talent. We played Mohun Bagan away where we didn’t need a result because we’d already won the league and it was an opportunity to get some minutes into some players.
That’s what you need – you need experience, you need to learn, you need to make mistakes. Sometimes coaches aren’t confident of playing the young lads because they do make mistakes. It’s inevitable and it can cost you the league. So you have to have a lot of confidence and you have to be brave and that’s what we did.
In the last 16 (of the AFC Cup), we had Udanta [Singh] and Daniel [Lalhlimpuia] up front who are both 18-19 years of age. Alwyn George is only 24 and he played as a forward. Eugene was there... And all of a sudden our key attackers are all Indians.
We don’t rely on foreigners, they complement us. They help us, obviously. But we don’t build our team around foreigners. And we don’t mind playing Indians in attacking areas, which is fairly unique.
We haven’t had the best individuals in the league, by no means. We haven’t even got the most expensive individuals. But I think we’ve certainly got the best functional side.
You’ve qualified for the AFC Cup quarter-finals in only your second attempt. Have you already started doing your homework on your likely opponents?
Well, there’s South China who’ll be in there, Tampines [Rovers] from Singapore and also Johor. They’re the ones we’ll come up against in the East Asian category. We know them well. We know all of them well, to be quite honest.
We’ve played Singaporean sides before and we’ve obviously played Johor three times before (Bengaluru and Johor were in the same group this season). We played South China last season and they’ve had an indifferent season themselves. So, by all means, it’s not unachievable to get into the semi-final.
Finally, what are your thoughts on the Champions League final between Real and Atletico Madrid? And if I were to get a prediction out of you?
It will be an interesting encounter. You have two contrasting styles – the compactness of Atletico and the flamboyance of their rivals. It’s small margins at the top. If the key world class players can play anywhere near they can, sometimes it’s hard to stop them.
We’ll probably see a collective team trying to snuff out and defend against a team with the best individuals. I hope it’s an exciting and open game and I don’t think you look past Real Madrid.
Images courtesy of Puma and Bengaluru FC
