Jamshedpur FC

Owen Coyle joined Jamshedpur FC as the head coach with every intention to breathe life into a club that has been inches away from entering the playoffs since its inception. The club made strides, including an unbeaten run of 6 games and many other laurels in Season 2020/21. His passion for the game pushed the players to bring out the best in each other as teammates and from within and they will continue to do the same in the upcoming season with the Gaffer by their side, supporting them like a rock.

In this part of the interview, our head coach discusses the club, Jamshedpur signings,  his thoughts on how he approaches it and plans for the new season.

How important was the Valskis signing from Chennaiyin FC to Jamshedpur FC for you as you got a striker who scores a lot of goals for the club?

When you look to sign players to your clothes, you are obviously looking at some focal points. Valskis was the golden boot winner in the previous season at Chennaiyin FC and had shown the qualities of a perfect striker throughout the season. So there’s no doubt about his qualities and for a club like Jamshedpur who never entered the play-offs, had only grabbed 5 points out of the 10 games in the last season, it showed that there was a lot of work to be put in. So we sent out a message to Valskis that we need some quality players in the squad and make Jamshedpur FC a force to be reckoned with, that we aim to grow the team much better, and that is exactly what we have done at Jamshedpur FC.

How did you figure out the rest of the foreign and Indian signings to be made for Jamshedpur FC?

We brought in some of the players from Chennaiyin FC but I also inherited some of the players from Jamshedpur FC who were already present in the club when I joined. Their contract with Jamshedpur was still active with some players being Indian and some being foreign. So what we had to do with that was make the best out of the players we already had and let them create an impact on the field. If you also look at the signings that I've made when I joined the club, those players have been outstanding in their performance with Rehenesh in the goal, who had an outstanding season. Then Dinliana, who I worked with in Chennaiyin FC, who is an excellent right full back in the country is outstanding. He did suffer from some injuries last year but he still wanted to play as did many other players. So, the players deserve a huge credit for that as the bio-bubble was a huge challenge because as the season starts, the games happen too fast, so the players do not really get a lot of time to recover from those injuries. Dinliana was one of those strong players that I brought in and then with Farukh Choudhary, Len Doungel and Boris coming in later in the season, all of these domestic players have made significant impacts on the field and that is good for us. It tells us that we can spot domestic talents in the league and they all are young which means they can improve even further and help Jamshedpur FC in the future.

How important do you think it is for the team to pair another strong foreign striker alongside Valskis to aid him in the final third?

It is very important that we strengthen our attack department. We were unfortunate that we did not have an amazing striker like David Grande on the pitch for almost the whole season due to his injury. He did manage to play a few games at the end of the season and also scored wonderful goals for the team but it is sad that he was not able to play the whole season and how frustrated he was with his injury. Also Nick Fitzgerald got injured in the first game and did not really get the chance to play any games properly. So we were hit hard with the number of injuries of the foreign players. But full credits to the players to show heart and step up to the pitch despite the injuries. Alex Lima, who had a couple of injuries during the season, decided to continue playing despite the injuries to help the team out. He probably played at 70% of his potential and still managed to put on good performances for the club. He is an even outstanding player when he is at his 100% but unfortunately the less recovery time due to the games being played in quick succession was a bit heavy on those players. But we definitely have to strengthen our attack and aim to score more goals ahead. Back in my time at Bolton Wanderers when I was a player and our coach was asked why the team has so many strikers, he replied that one can never have enough goalscorers in a club and he was absolutely right about that. Anyone on the pitch comes to score a goal if they are at the right place at the right time. I feel Mobashir has a great potential to score goals from the midfield and he will get even better if he gets a good preseason before the season kicks off. I am even excited to work more with Farukh as he has the potential to be an even better attacker and I can help him score more goals. Even Boris and Len have shown that they can score and that is what we have to build upon to be more attack minded than last season. We look to bring in more goal scorers so that more players can score from anywhere on the field.

Do you think, with Len, Farukh, Boris and other upcoming signings in the team can help fill in the missing depth in the Jamshedpur team?

Yeah I think I have got the players that will do very well in every area as they are fast and exciting on the field. We have a couple of domestic signings which have not been announced yet but the transfer procedure needs to be completed which is good news for us. This is what we aim to do next year and I want young and excitingly talented players who can take Jamshedpur to higher positions in the years to come. For me, it’s not just about getting the team to a certain level but also to put in the building blocks in the club that is needed for the club to achieve their goals in the future and I hope I am there to see it come to fruition. The management of Jamshedpur and I know exactly what we have to do and we need to work towards achieving it because it does not come easily to anyone as we have to put a lot of pieces into the right place. But because of covid, the progress has slowed down but we know what we have to do and I am very excited to implement those ideas which will be of great help for Jamshedpur FC for many years to come.

Do you have any specific plan for the upcoming preseason with the team?

The most important thing in the preseason is to get enough time because when we arrived in Goa last year, we were quarantined in our rooms for 2 weeks which took away two essential weeks of training for the team. Not only Jamshedpur but even other clubs faced similar challenges with injuries to multiple players because when you are in the pre-season, your preseason is not designed to cover you for the first 2-3 games but to cover for the whole season ahead. When I took my Burnley team to the Premier League with a fantastic team, we played 61 games in the season. That's a big number and the reason is the way the preseason was structured to make the players last for the entirety of the season. That is exactly why coaches focus a lot on the preseason as it is a very important aspect of the game. It allows the coaches to implement the ideas that they have for their team and also allows them to prepare their players mentally and physically  while bringing them to a very good position to begin the season.

Visit here for Part 4 of Owen Coyle’s episode of the ‘Beyond the Scores’ podcast.