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Jamshedpur FC Head Coach Scott Cooper spoke to the media ahead of the all-important clash against Bengaluru FC.
On the opponent with a new coach…
This game in particular is difficult to prepare for because you are talking about a team that just had a 4-0 defeat, then their coach leaves, and then a 2-0 defeat with a caretaker coach. So you can’t get a reading on what the team may or may not do in the next game. Therefore, it’s straightforward because first of all you have to expect a reaction from a team that’s not doing as well as the expectations of the owner and the city. It’s difficult to prepare against the current Bengaluru because normally you’re preparing for a formation, patterns of play, or set pieces. But when a coach leaves and a caretaker coach comes in, and then ultimately a new coach is going to be there, you don’t know what to expect. You could spend a lot of time and yet waste your time confusing yourself and the players for something that shows up entirely different than you planned for. So to plan on anything that we’re going to face here tomorrow wouldn’t make sense. The only thing we can plan on is individual players. We know who they are, and what they do. You have to also be guarded against a team that’s lost a couple of games. I dare say the expectations are high and therefore you expect some kind of attempt to bounce back. However you want to call it, backlash or whatever. We’re a team that went through four games losing streaks. And so in short, it’s difficult to prepare against them. There is no science for what they’re going to do as a team.
On gaining momentum in the league…
I think we both are different in the sense that Bengaluru is a team that came fourth last year, they had a good end of the season, so they came into the season with high expectations. We were a team that came second from the bottom and we had a good start but we lost four games by very narrow scorelines. We didn’t get beaten by two clear goals, three or four goals. So we’ve not conceded in a loss heavily. Every game that we’ve lost, we felt that we had a legitimate right to have taken points from that game. So what do I expect from my team? We’re a young team. Some new foreigners in the team are new to the league. I’m very clear on the philosophy that I have as a coach that will never change. You can see as a team, we don’t sit back. We do press and possess the ball. We play a good brand of football. Our issue has been not in possession or shooting or defending. It’s just been in converting chances. If you look, you’ll see most games we’ve got equal, if not more chances in possession. Therefore, we’re just trying to get that right. It’s been a matter on the training ground. It’s not as simple as the strikers haven’t scored the goals. It’s the type of chances we’re creating and the rhythm of what we’re trying to do. We’ve been working hard on giving ourselves a different kind of dynamic in terms of the higher possession. Our low possession is pretty good. We possess the ball well. We build the play. We get to the last third. Our final third possession has been disappointing to a degree.
On not converting chances…
It’s probably a little bit of both. There’s Chima here today who can answer for himself as well. We’re creating chances but sometimes it’s also about the dynamic of what those chances are, where they are, who they fall to. Is there a chance that would be better for one final pass? So while we’re looking at chances, we’re having to look at the quality of the chances and the other options. Therefore we’ve been looking at the dynamic of the team in terms of scoring goals, but not necessarily pinpointing, oh, we’ve had all these chances, therefore we should have scored more. We’re looking at the type of chances we’ve got. Is there another option for that chance? Is there another extension of that chance for an even better chance? We talk about it all the time as a team. As a coach, I’m not worried in a sense because we are creating chances. Maybe we could create better chances. Maybe we can convert more chances but as a team, nobody’s run right through us. We’ve never gone away from what our philosophy is. We are a developing team that I expect to get better and better. It’s not a sprint. You’ve got to keep in touch and distance but we hope to start moving at a faster pace in terms of collection of points.
