Jamshedpur FC

Jamshedpur FC Head Coach Scott Cooper spoke to the media ahead of the all-important clash vs FC Goa. Here are the excerpts from the pre-match press conference:

On FC Goa...

Well, they are number one in the table, or they were until Kerala won last night. So, I think they're a good team. They have a good coach who performed well in Hyderabad. Thus, we expect a very tough game. The football is good, and the coach is good. However, it's still early in the season for anyone to get carried away with anything. Many fans and media people get carried away with points and the table, but it doesn't matter until March-April. You could get carried away if you're at the top or get worried if you're towards the bottom. But the truth is, it doesn't. The table looks good, but it doesn't reflect anything yet.

On any changes in his strategy...

No, people already know what I do, how I coach, and how our team plays. Why would I change our philosophy? I mean, if you're talking about formations, you can always see a change. If you're talking about philosophy, it's never going to change because I was hired for that philosophy. Therefore, I won't change. It's better for the team to change me than ask me to change my philosophy because they brought me for that reason. That's why I won't change because that's the way I see football, and that's the way we play football. We will add more to it; we won't change it.

On not converting the opportunities to goals...

We are creating a lot of chances and playing good football. People in the league know. I don't read the media, and I don't have social media because I don't care. I only care about what I, my club, and our fans think. But I'm hearing lots of things about the way we play. People like the way we play, the way we press, and the way we try to play football. We create a lot of chances. In the last game against Mohun Bagan SG, we created more chances than they did, right? We had 10 men for 30 minutes. So we create a lot of chances. If you put too much emphasis on converting chances to goals, it becomes kind of like a monkey on your back. We have to trust in the process that at one point chances are going to get converted. We see how the players play, and the process goes. But as I said, when anybody asks me, like the previous question, I said, 'Am I going to change? Why would I? Well, the only thing that's missing is finished chances, right? So why would we change anything?

On the challenges faced due to a break in the season...

For me, there's no challenge because I know how to control my team and the players. I think during a break, you have three possibilities: first, give us some refreshing time; second, add more aspects to what you've already planted. You know, like a new coach in a club, like the coach here too, you'll want to add a few more things, aspects to the game. And third, clear any niggles or injuries as best as you can. So, it's not a challenge. It's more like a scheduling challenge because you want to give a break, freshen some players up, but you also want to add some more things. But as far as motivation, that, for me, is not a problem at all. Players will have a problem with me if they don't have motivation. It's as simple as that.

On the breaking of the momentum due to the international break...

Yeah, that's a good question. Maybe a better question for the Goa coach? Because you were flying high, top of the league, well, until last night. Our momentum is that we're playing well, creating chances, and have an identifiable style that everybody can see. We haven't got the points that we deserve. So, for us, our momentum will continue on the same path. Hopefully, our luck changed a little bit, in terms of key moment decisions by officials and chances converted. But for momentum, for us, it's really about a matter of continuing with the philosophy. Adding a little bit more. My team is just going to get better. That's what we're going to do. We've got a lot of young players, a lot of new players, new ISL players. So, there's a lot of learning happening, even for myself as a coach. We will become more and more dangerous. We already create more chances than most teams we play against. We already show what we can do without the ball. So, imagine us in 10 or 15 games' time. For us, it's a continuation of the same. Momentum is for teams that are getting points just. So, if you look at Kerala and Goa, for example, they've won a lot of games by a single goal, or like the East Bengal game, reversed it round, or the last-minute goal here. We've not had that. We've had it against us. We've not had that. So, that momentum, I think, is more of a question for the coach here to continue. They've made a great start. They've got the points in the bag. For us, it's not really about keeping them. We don't want to keep that momentum up of playing really well and not getting the points.

FC Goa host Jamshedpur FC at Fatorda in Goa on November 27th. Catch the ISL action LIVE on Sports 18, VH1 and Jio Cinema.