ISL 2017: Will be a tough game seeing they don’t concede many goals says John Gregory

FACED with the challenge of getting past the tightest defence of the league, Chennaiyin FC travel to Jamshedpur tonight.

John Gregory was speaking at the pre-match post conference about the Steve Coppells team, he said,

“I know that Steve’s team will be very hard working. When I stayed in England, his players always worked very hard. If you don’t work hard, you don’t play in his team. And we’ve always watched them on TV many times this season and they always work very hard, every single player. So, you know when you play against them, you have to compete,”

He continued,

“You have to be ready for a battle. So, all my players know exactly the kind of game that we will be expecting tomorrow night. It will be a tough game seeing they don’t concede many goals. Not scored many goals either so far. But the fact that their defence is very, very tight will make it a really, really tough game for us. But we are very aware of what to expect. The pitch has improved. I am not so nervous about the pitch as I was previously.”

Also read the preview for this game: Jamshedpur FC looking to halt the multi goal-scorers of Chennaiyin FC

John Gregory and Steve both former players have played each other in their playing days and the Chennaiyin FC coach remembered the old times saying,

“Steve and I have played against each other back in the late 70’s. I had black hair and he had hair,” Gregory quipped. “He was an outstanding player. Very humble. I don’t think we have coached against each other. We were in different divisions at various times. But he did a great job for Kerala last year and he is doing a great job this year too.”

When asked for his thoughts on there being no relegation in the Hero ISL, Gregory added, 

“I think it’s a good thing there isn’t relegation. As a coach you see what happens in Europe. They change the coaches every six months. There is a lot of instability in football clubs. Sometimes coaches don’t get the amount of time they should get to do the job as best as they can because the owners conceive that they slide towards the relegation zone and it’s time for them to change the coach.”