Jamshedpur FC

After a stunning performance which sealed the victory for Jamshedpur FC against FC Goa, the Gaffer talked about the performance of the Men of Steel and FC Goa as compared to last season, the attacking strategies in the game and much more.

Here are the excerpts from the post-match interview:

Will we see more of Komal Thatal in the coming games after his impressive play on the left wing?

Absolutely! Young Komal Thatal, young Boris Singh came on and should’ve had a goal, but it was a great save from Dheeraj, another young talented Indian goalkeeper. So yeah, we are delighted with Komal and with Boris. The reason I brought them to the club is because they’re young, excited, and they will keep getting better. Here at Jamshedpur, we like giving young players the opportunities they deserve and that’s what we’ll continue to do.

You now have a problem of plenty, Valskis finding his scoring boots again, Jordan scoring with his first touch, and Stewart was absolutely stunning

The head coaches this year have a real dilemma, selecting four from six. I’m very fortunate there are six players. I’m delighted with every one of them, it was a tough decision to not make Eli Sabia start. He is one of the best centre-backs in the league, and he’s got a fantastic partnership with Peter Hartley. There’s more to come from Greg Stewart, mark my words. He will continue to get better. Jordan Murray is still not at 100% yet, so Jordan can only give us 15-20 minutes, but when he’s fully fit, then it’ll be a challenge, but it’s a good problem to have because you want that problem when they’re playing well. You don’t want that when they are all out of sorts, and they’re not playing well, and you can take any of them. That’s a real problem which is something the head coaches would like to avoid. It also acts like an opportunity for the Indian players as they’re all getting better and they also did a tremendous job tonight. We scored 3 goals but it could have been 5-6 more and that too against a very good FC Goa side. This says a lot about us as we did not play as well as we should have against SC East Bengal which is a game we feel we should have won. Regardless of the first game, we came out and gave an amazing performance till the end. We also have to keep the consistency moving forward and be ready for the next game. If we are ready, then we have already shown that we can score goals and win games.

Did you expect that kind of performance from FC Goa, considering they were very strong last season, retained the coach and got a few additional players as well?

No, I was expecting that game. I mean, they actually weren’t that bad in the game. Speaking from my experience, the thing with FC Goa is that when you play against them, you have to work so hard against the ball because Bedia, Noguera and Ortiz move and they pass well along with the young wingers coming really good off the side. So, we had to make sure we were focused, disciplined, and in good shape against the ball. But, it was important to also know when we found the opening, which we were capable of doing tonight because we play at high intensity, that we had to go with real speed, real speed of thought, and be positive with it. That's what we did tonight and it came really well together in the end. FC Goa also came with a couple of good chances, but Rehenesh made some really amazing saves. I know FC Goa will win more games to find themselves in the business end of the season.

After last season’s performances against FC Goa, was it like a revenge well taken today?

No, no, it's not revenge. I mean, Jamshedpur FC haven’t beaten FC Goa in the last eight games, way before my time. But of course last year, we know we scored a great goal with Alex Lima. That would have been a match-winner on any other day. But anyway, that was last season, we can't be affected by that. And that's why I said prior to the game, the previous eight games had no bearing on us. What we saw was two teams going at each other, who would be the best team on the pitch and it was Jamshedpur FC. There’s no doubt about that against a very good FC Goa squad. From the kick-off whistle itself, I was delighted with the performance that the team gave with Thatal scoring a really good goal in the opening minutes but was disallowed. Regardless of that, he was sensational on the pitch and was like a real thorn in the side all night. We almost took the lead in the first half with Len’s attempt and in the half-time, we knew that if we continued to play with this intensity then we would create more opportunities to score and we also need to be more clinical as we move forward.

How happy are you with that combination from Greg Stewart and Nerijus Valskis?

I'm delighted but this did not just happen in thin air. We've worked on that training, that movement, that play between the two of them. They like passing the ball within each other, they are very comfortable and they are clever footballers. You’ve seen that, that step off and the lay off from Greg to Valskis who scored a fantastic football goal. But to make such plays, we need to get more ball time into their training and they are doing exactly that, working hard on the training ground as I see everyday. When you put in the work in the training ground then that reflects onto the pitch as well like it happened in the game against SC East Bengal as well when our set-piece tactic that we have practiced in the training came to fruition, so that is always nice to see that happening.

It was Valskis’ 1st goal since he scored against Kerala in January. What is your take on that?

I have always said that Valskis, when he’s at his best, is one of the top strikers in the league, along with the likes of Roy Krishna. They are in that bracket, as is young Jordan Murray, who is going to get better and better every season and that's the kind of problems you want to have in your club. Well, in the last season, what we needed to do in fairness for Valskis was to just get him a little bit of quality support. We didn't really have to fully support him, Alex played as a central midfielder, we didn't have a number 10 and Greg Stewart plays in there and he's clever and you can see the link up with Valskis just like he had Crivellaro back in Chennaiyin FC, so I've always been keen on looking for that player. Greg Stewart sits perfectly in the position he’s playing in and we are going to see some real good link-ups between the two in the upcoming games.