ISL 2019-20 | Mumbai City made some mistakes, admits Jorge Costa
ISL
Mumbai City FC head coach Jorge Costa has admitted that his team made some mistakes after their hard-fought 2-2 draw against NorthEast United at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati. The Portuguese coach further analyzed the match and revealed what he told his players in the halftime.
Mumbai City held an unbeaten NorthEast United FC for a 2-2 draw at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. The Islanders dominated most of the game with better ball possession and Tunisian striker Amine Chermiti scored a brace but goals from Panagiotis Triadis and Asamoah Gyan settled the scores. The islanders have now five points in as many games and are seventh in the table.
Mumbai City FC head coach Jorge Costa analyzed the result and has admitted that Mumbai made some mistakes, however, he was satisfied with the team's overall performance.Â
“We made some mistakes today like the last two games, but it wasn’t because it was an all Indian defensive line. I don’t like to speak individually or about the goalkeeper, the midfield or the attacking line. I prefer to speak of the team, and I think my team played a very good game today. We are now going to Kolkata with one point, which I think should be more with all respect to NorthEast. But football is like this…. but as I told my players after the game if we continue to play with the attitude and quality that we showed today then we will be where we want to be at the end of the league,” said Costa reported the ISL website.
The Portuguese coach then elaborated on the game in which the Highlanders played on the counter-attack, a style not usual for Robert Jarni's side. “In my opinion, in the second half, we were close to scoring. NorthEast also had a few chances but on counter-attacks. I watched all of NorthEast’s games from the start of the season and I think today was the first time that NorthEast played on the counter.
"This happened because they were playing against a good team like Mumbai City FC and we pushed them to do so. It’s not the result that we wanted. We didn’t fly here to go back home with one point, we wanted all three. But we played against a very good team that is unbeaten from the start of the season,” Costa opined.
The 48-year-old coach also revealed what he told to his players in the halftime when the score was at 2-2 and admitted that he asked them to play with quality and do a little extra in the second half.
“I was happy with the boys at half-time. I am never 100% happy but I was happy and confident that we could do something more in the second half. We were making some mistakes and we tried to fix some of those mistakes, but I asked my players to believe. I asked them to play with quality and to do something extra because I felt it was possible to win the game.” Costa added.
The coach then spoke about the substitutions he made by recalling captain Paulo Machado. “And as you saw from my substitutions, it wasn’t to keep it at 2-2. I took out Paulo Machado and put Diego Carlos in central midfield, which isn’t his favoured position. I also put on another striker to try and score but it’s okay. Unfortunately, we’re still making mistakes that we can’t afford to make at this level. It’s something we need to work on as a team and individually to become stronger,” Costa concluded.
