Super Cup | We don’t need to do a great deal of technical work, says Steve Coppell

SportsCafe Desk
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Ahead of ATK’s quarter-final game against Delhi Dynamos FC in the ongoing Super Cup, Steve Coppell has asserted that at this stage of the season there is no need of doing a lot of technical work. On the other hand, Mridul Banerjee has said that Delhi have prepared well for the whole team.

After a disappointing end in the Indian Super League, where they finished at the sixth place, the team from Kolkata will be eyeing to make it to the top four of the ongoing Super Cup. ATK will meet Delhi Dynamos in their quarter-final at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday and Steve Coppell has made it clear that after playing so many matches in the season combining both ISL and the Super Cup, there is no need of focussing more on techniques of the footballers in the ATK camp. ATK had earlier defeated Real Kashmir FC on Monday to qualify for the quarter-finals of the ongoing AIFF knockout tournament.

"I think we are prepared. Obviously, at this stage of the season, we don’t need to do a great deal of technical work. Throughout the course of the season, Delhi have played some really good football and perhaps haven’t had the results that they deserved. I know that this will be a very competitive game and we look forward to the match," Coppell said during the press conference, reported Super Cup media team.

"We know, more or less, what the team will be. We know how they will play. It is a challenge to play against them because they look to get their forward players on the ball as much as possible. They have two very quick wide players and that is a real threat. So, to play against them, we have to understand what they are trying to do, stop it and then impose our game on them. We need to make them defend. But they are a very attractive team to watch.It will be the exact opposite. Delhi play a possession-based passing style of football with pace up front. Kashmir have a very difficult style to play against. We won it in the last 10 minutes, but the real work was done in the previous 80. In football, there is not one formula for success. Whichever style you play, you have to play with commitment."

Delhi Dynamos, on the other hand, had even a poorer campaign in the ISL as they finished eighth with only 18 points from as many games in the league. The team from the national capital lacks match practice as well as they got an easy path to the top eight as they got walk-overs in the qualification round as well as in the round of 16 against Gokulam Kerala and East Bengal respectively.

“We have to win to keep alive our dream of winning the Hero Super Cup. From a strategical point of view, we have made a lot of preparations on how we can attack and defend. We have practised a few tactics," Delhi’s assistant coach Mridul Banerjee explained at the pre-match press conference.

"I am not looking at this type of thing. I am looking at the total team. Because if we lose the game we will be out of the tournament. So, I am looking at ATK’s entire team, not just one player."

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