Albert Roca believes that Hyderabad FC need a change in mentality (Exclusive)

On the 12th of January 2020, Hyderabad FC announced that Albert Roca would be taking charge of the team next season. The Spaniard comes to the Telangana club, having already earned quite a reputation in India.

Having managed Bengaluru FC in the recent past, he led the team to both the ISL and the AFC Cup finals, in addition to a Hero Super Cup triumph in 2018. Roca also guided his team to Federation Cup glory in the 2016-17 season. The 57-year-old's two-year contract with the club means that he will be at the helm till the end of the 2021-22 season.

Having finished the 2019-20 campaign at the foot of the ISL ladder, Roca believes he has a very different task at hand as compared to his last assignment in India.

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, the former Barcelona assistant manager opened up about the challenges he would be facing with his new club.

“It's quite different at Hyderabad FC compared to when I joined Bengaluru FC. These are two totally different situations. Back then, they were playing the AFC Cup knockouts and had won the league in the previous season, the goals were completely different,” Roca said.

While he also stressed on the importance of building a team and making them function as a well-oiled unit, the former BFC manager also understands that it would not be an easy task. Roca believes that it is up to the team to come together and work as one to ensure the club enjoys a stellar debut season under him.

“At Hyderabad, we are trying to manage the situation differently. We have to form a new-look squad and it's not going to be easy, but we are working on that. We need to get everyone together and ready for a tough season. So that is the most important thing,” the Spaniard said.

According to the Spaniard, the group is working towards a style of play that would define the team. As a manager, Roca places a lot of importance on his team’s way of playing the game, and Hyderabad is no different.

“The style of play is always on my mind, and I can't change that. But yes, we have to adjust the style of play to the players we have in our squad. At the moment, we don't have a full squad, so I can't really think about the system now.”

Meanwhile, the Granollers-born former centre-back is impressed with what he has seen from the new signings at Hyderabad since being installed as manager.

By acquiring the likes of Liston Colaco and Souvik Chakrabarti, Roca believes the club is looking to blend youth and experience adequately within the team, thus further strengthening the squad.

Having said that though, he was also quick to point out the difficulties that exist with regards to signing the premier talent from across the country, especially as most teams have such footballers on their respective shortlists.

Thus, the Spaniard seemed happy that Hyderabad FC could add the likes of Liston and Souvik to their ranks in the winter transfer window, considering the experience the latter possesses and the breath of fresh air the former would bring to the fore.

Xavier Gurri Lopez took interim charge of Hyderabad FC after the sacking of Phil Brown

In fact, once the club had parted ways with Phil Brown on the 11th of January 2020, the outfit seemed in danger of unravelling, although that particular rot was stopped to an extent by Xavier Gurri Lopez, another Spaniard who is set to become Roca's most trusted lieutenant next term. Rather unsurprisingly, the latter was all praise for his compatriot.

“Javi did a wonderful job with the team, in the last few months. We’ve been in touch almost daily, and he has been very important. We generally begin our job with the team in the first days of the preseason, but Javi has been doing it in the last couple of months,” the 2016 AFC Cup finalist told us.

“He has changed or started to bring about that change in the mentality of the players. I think the results that we saw towards the latter half of the season, even more, the performance of the players was much better than the previous games,” Roca also added.

On being quizzed about the areas that the team management would need to address, the 2018 Super Cup winning coach again emphasized on the importance of introducing a winning mentality in the squad. Additionally, Roca aims to help his charges optimise the experience of a bad season to help them grow as players and achieve their goals, one step at a time.

“When we see that last season, we have to be realistic and change a lot of things. The first thing is the change in mentality. We are coming on from a bad season, and the first goal is to change the mentality,” the 57-year-old said.

“I am sure that when the players return, they will understand that football is sometimes not easy. But it’s about your mind that grows with the experiences and training hard is going to give us small victories. It’s about combining those small victories to go after the bigger goals,” he also added.

Can Hyderabad FC turn things around in 2020-21 under Albert Roca?

Looking ahead at what the next season holds for the team, the Hyderabad FC boss stressed that the club were looking to bring in players that would be the right fit for them. He believes these players needed to be the kind that the supporters could enjoy, in addition to them being hard-working members of the squad.

Thus, in a nutshell, the Spaniard had elucidated that he intended to replicate a model that had brought him past success, wherein his team specialised in blending style with substance.

Coming off the back of a last-place finish last season, it would be interesting to see how the club actually fares under a manager that has almost won everything there is to win in Indian football. Rather promisingly for the southern outfit though, the Spaniard seems to appreciate the enormity of the task at hand, while remaining equally optimistic of tiding over whatever adversities might accrue along the way.

Thus, Roca's undoubted ability coupled with the fact that he is making all the right noises ahead of what promises to be a defining campaign, means that the sky could very well be the limit for Hyderabad FC.