ISL 2019-20 | I’ve always like to play with wingers, admits Josep Gombau

11/01/2019

Praising Nandhakumar Sekar and Jerry Mawhmingthanga, Odisha FC head coach Josep Gombau has stated coming from Barcelona, he has always liked involving more in whatever formations he is going with. The Spaniard also stated that his team needed to improve on numerous aspects despite winning 4-2.

Josep Gombau might just have gotten back his mojo in India after struggling for more than one season. Coming into the match against Mumbai City FC away from home after two back-to-back losses, the Juggernauts were written off pretty much by everyone.

However, Gombau’s players stunned the Islanders with three goals in the first half buoying on some magnificent displays by winger Jerry and Nandhakumar on both wings. After the match, the happy coach decided to delve deeper in his tactics and how coming from Barcelona’s academy has achieved it.

“I like to play with our wingers, it’s something I have always done, and I like. Coming from Barcelona, it’s something very usual to play this 4-3-3. And we are playing 4-2-1-3 because we have these other wingers,” said Gombau in the post-match press conference, reported the ISL media.

“I think they are the players who fit very well in this football we want to play, because they are quick, and they feel comfortable playing outside. I think they will grow. They are very young, and they are doing well. I am so happy with them,” he added.

The first win for Odisha came on Thursday as new signing Aridane Santana scored a brace while Xisco Hernandez and Jerry Mawhmingthanga chipped in one goal apiece. However, Mumbai got back two goals in the second-half through Mohamed Larbi and Bipin Singh.

Gombau was considerate of Mumbai’s problems after the match pointing out that the team had to play three matches in a space of eight days. “I think we did well against a very good opposition team. I think in the last two games also we did quite well. Honestly, I think we deserved to at least have a win before tomorrow.

“But this is football and today everything went our way. And I also think that this run that Mumbai had with three games in eight days is something difficult to deal with. For us, I think it was a good thing,” he added.

The 43-year-old, however, was quick to move on to the next match stating that he thought his team needed to improve in many aspects of the game and they won’t stop working on that. “We can improve. There is room to improve. We need to see the game and for sure there are mistakes. And we need to improve in all this. It’s the third game of the season and we need to go game by game. We won one game, but that doesn’t mean anything.

“It’s just one game. We need to be happy today and from tomorrow, I have to start to work again to prepare for the Kerala game away,” he added.