ISL 7: Battle between strategists as goal-fest awaits Goa and Mumbai
Fatorda (Goa) [India], November 24 (ANI): It will be an entertaining evening for the football fans as the two most famous sides of the Indian Super League -- FC Goa and Mumbai City FC -- will take on each other at the Fatorda Stadium on Wednesday.
Mumbai head coach Sergio Lobera has been known for getting his players to spray passes all around the pitch. During his stint as Goa coach, he averaged 535 passes per match.
He has not been with this Mumbai team for long, but he has already started getting them to stick to his philosophy. Despite falling to a 0-1 defeat to NorthEast United, 10-man Mumbai had more than 60 per cent possession and completed 451 passes to their opponents' 217. No team has passed more in the league so far.
One team has come close though -- Juan Ferrando's FC Goa. In the 2-2 draw against Bengaluru, they managed to complete 448 passes, more than twice what their opponents managed.
Lobera, despite the loss, is happy with how the team is playing and believes that it is only a matter of time before the goals start coming.
"We are the team with the most passes till now. You cannot just consider the shots on target stat. The chances of Farukh (Choudhary) and Sarthak (Golui) were close. We did some things very well. We played with 10 players and still dominated the game. But still, we need to improve," he said.
The Mumbai coach will be without Ahmed Jahouh, arguably his most influential player, on his return to his former stomping ground, but believes his team can compensate for that.
"As a coach, I have good players and I am not scared of missing some of them," Lobera said.
For Ferrando, who turned the game around against Bengaluru with two brilliant second-half substitutions, worrying about what the opponent can do is a waste of time.
"My focus is on my team and I am not thinking about the opposition. The most important thing is to be positive, competitive, and win three points. Against Mumbai or any other team, our mentality will be the same -- win three points," he said. (ANI)
