Molina says "Keep the ball" is the motto; Vingada: We will be out there to win

EVERY TEAM STAND to qualify for the semi finals are that would be their motivation coming into the game. NEUFC are looking to be back to winning ways as the start of their season.

The last meeting between the two teams, ATK won the match 2-1. Coach Molina about the upcoming fixture shared his approach saying,

"Our plan for tomorrow is to do what we have been doing every match like defending well, press them and don't allow them too much time to think with the ball, and we want to keep possession as much as possible, move the possession and try to attack as much as possible and do something similar to what we did in the second half in Guwahati"

The NorthEast United Coach, Vingada, facing a tough task of overcoming a consistently good performing team, shared he ideology behind on the game, saying,

“Tomorrow is another game, our beginning was fantastic but the last four losses have put us in a difficult situation. In life and in football, we have seen that nothing is impossible. No one has qualified and no one is out yet. It will be hard but nothing is impossible. We can overcome this situation. We made some important mistakes which cost us the results and we should have had more points than we have right now"

He continued saying,

“We can show tomorrow that we are here to fight to overcome the situation and we still have a chance to qualify. In their last game, Kolkata played very well against Delhi and they were superior. Tomorrow will be a crucial game for us and we hope for a positive result and we will be out on the pitch to win.”

On a statistic that highlighted that none of ATK's goals have come from Indians.To which Coach Molina explained ,

“We don't have Indian strikers as other teams like Chennaiyin have Jeje and Goa have Robin Singh and other teams have Indian strikers who can score goals, whereas we have Hume and Belencoso. And I would like Lalrindika Ralte and Bidyananda Singh to score goals but it has not happened yet.”

On his misfiring players, Vingada said that it was part and parcel of the game and there was no need for any alarm. He spoke further,

"This has happened with the Barcelona goalkeeper, happened with Manuel Neuer, so it has happened to all the players. Football is so attractive because mistakes like this happen. Sometimes it’s not because of more or less experience but it happens in the moment. However, these mistakes happened with us more than usual so we now hope to end it,”

ATK have a a constantly changing back line with a rotation of players. If he saw this as a problem, Molina replied,

“No… I am happy with the defenders that I have. I would like to concede fewer goals and we are working on that.”

Vingada is hopeful that the players returning from suspension and injury will provide a boost to the squad. He continued saying,

"You know when you are working with a team, you have a strategy and we have a set team but with injuries we need to change the team and also one or two times we needed to change the way we were playing… I assume the responsibility of everything happening with the team and the results, but sometimes some things that happen during the game can destroy the plan, so now we are working more on the mental plan than the technical plan. I believe tomorrow we have more options as we have some injured players back, and even Alfaro is back"

On speaking about the players unavailable, as their star winger Doutie would not be available , Molina spoke,

"Well I think you can lose a player to injury and it is something we don't want to but we must accept that and I am absolutely confident about my team. We are playing good football and we have played a game fewer but we are still in the top four. Now we are focussed on tomorrow's match and on doing better. The past is the past and now we must work hard tomorrow for ninety minutes to win again and that is what we have on our mind,”

The Portugese, Vingada, on the question how he keeps the team motivated answered commenting,

"Now we need to be reborn for the situation and the matches with the same attitude we had in the first few games, so this is the same team which won in the beginning against good opponents. In the games we won, we did make mistakes and in the games we lost we made crucial mistakes. Now we don’t have many games to spare, so we have to play for results and we have to win the games.”
 

The defence or the offence, which of those was more troubling for him, the NEUFC Coach replied stating,

"We have conceded eight goals and it’s fine but the problem is we are missing many chances, so if we see the reports of the games we can see that our team has created many chances but has not been able to convert and that has become a major problem."