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FC Pune City will only have three points on their mind when they take on ATK at the iconic Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday evening in the Indian Super League.
The Pune based team is lying low at the bottom of the points table with just two points from six matches. Their coach Pradyum Reddy feels that there are many things to rectify for them in the upcoming days and the defence is one of them.
When asked about his views regarding the backline of FC Pune City in the pre-match press conference, their coach said
“Definitely it’s a concern. When I came in the first three games, we conceded six goals. There are a lot of issues we need to rectify. One of those is the lack of goals. We’ve scored five in the last three games, but we’ve conceded many goals as well."
The Indian Super League will be halted for 10 days from due to an International break. Pradyum Reddy feels that they can make use of the International break and regroup for the rest of the competition.
“Absolutely I think the break is something we're looking forward too. This will be our fourth game in 14 games. We need time to rectify some of our issues, especially defending. As a team, we defended well but the individual errors are still there,” said the manager.
FC Pune City has enjoyed a great record against ATK, losing just against the two-time champions.
Out of the eight matches, they played each other, FC Pune City has won five out of them. Although, Pradyum feels that the ISL history will hardly matter in the next match.
Regarding the matter, he said,
“I got asked the similar question against Chennaiyin. I think the ISL history doesn’t play as big a part as people think. Every season, there are different personal so people don’t remember what happens previous season.”
He added by saying,
“Last season, we came here and won dominantly. We’re hoping for something similar this season and we can use that to kick-start our season.”
The last time FC Pune City played in Kolkata, they outclassed ATK by a 4-1 margin. Marcelinho, who scored a brace during the match last year, will miss out Saturday’s fixture after he was shown the marching orders in the last game.
