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Kerala Blasters FC took on NorthEast United FC in their second match of the Indian Super League. Both sides were victims of a 4-2 defeat in their first match by their opponents, ATK Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC respectively. Both Kerala Blasters FC and NorthEast United FC intended to finally start off their campaigns with this fixture.
The Kerala Blasters FC gaffer sounded optimistic after having witnessed his side play better than before. He said:
"I want to say to all our fans all the people who love Kerala Blasters. I’m the coach who likes attacking football. I like to attack. So, I like to create offensive situations. I like to create offensive chances and I want to see those boys getting in those situations and scoring goals. I think that even tonight the players who missed their chance, they have quality because I want to see them scoring more."
He spoke about how he wants the players to improve. He added:
"If you speak about Sahal, if you speak about any other player, I want to see them scoring more goals during one season. That's our that's our objective. Because these boys I want to see them improving. I want to see them becoming better because they had to become and they're already important parts of Kerala Blasters FC that I want them to become. Also, important part from national team and this is what we continue to do. We will build up."
The Kerala Blasters FC gaffer reacted to how his ISL team performed better during set-pieces compared to their previous encounter against ATK Mohun Bagan FC.
"Yes, let’s say that the we were more concentrated and we’re more focused, especially if we speak about defensive set pieces. I think that we were present. We were compact. We were good. And actually, I was happy with the performance of the defensive line because we knew that this game, we should be dominant which occurred and. Also, the chances we got."
He further added:
"But if you speak about, you know defensive set pieces seeing the facts and statistics from last season that many goals in ISL happened after set pieces. So of course, tonight we are very happy to not concede goals."
Kerala Blasters FC played both their foreign central defenders against the Islanders, which made the defense much more compact. Vukomanovic talked about this as well. He said:
"Yes, yes, I think this was the first time actually since we started the even our pre-season. Everything that these two central defenders tonight Leskovic and Sipowicz have played together 90 minutes. So, these kinds of things make me happy. These kinds of things are."
He stressed how these things bring stability to the team:
"That can bring stability to all the team because you can build up further on those positive things and when you have a different stability when you have a defensive work with strong who is not allowing many things to offensive opponent players. So, these things can bring you at least one point. Which was tonight the case."
He believes they should have scored against NorthEast United FC:
"We had good chances upfront. I think that's it. We should have scored in the first and the second chances, but anyway these players, like I said, they work hard. They wanted to score so I cannot say anything."
Khalid Jamil reacts to NorthEast United FC's performance against Kerala Blasters FC
The Islanders coach believes that not being able to avail the services of Federico Gallego cost them in the final third against Kerala Blasters FC.
"Gallego is a quality player. But we asked to make him ready for the next match. I thought to give him chance but situation was not favouring to put another player."
But having their foreign defender Patrick Flottmann back in their ranks made their defense stable, alongside having Hernan Santana as well. Khalid feels that his NorthEast United FC side were defensively on point against Kerala Blasters FC but require them to pick up on their attacking notes again.
