After suffering a resounding defeat at the hands of Pune City FC, the Men of Steel now move on to their clash against the defending champions Chennaiyin FC, where even a draw would mean that Jamshedpur FC can’t make it to the play-off spots with just two games to go.
It has been a season to forget for John Gregory and his men as their plans for a successful title defence have failed miserably. The defending champions are currently bottom of the Indian Super League table and have only managed two wins so far this campaign while suffering a staggering number of twelve defeats.
On the other hand, Jamshedpur FC are still in contention for the play-offs but all is not in their hands as they need favourable results from Mumbai City and NorthEast United to get into the play-offs. The Jamshedpur FC fans will be feeling a sense of déjà vu as in their inaugural season, the team from Jharkhand were in a similar situation and had marginally missed to conjure up enough points for the fourth spot and in turn missed out on the playoffs.
Previewing tomorrow’s game, Jamshedpur FC head coach Cesar Ferrando said the following about his opponents, “If we want to be in the top four, we need to win tomorrow’s game, but I know that tomorrow it will be a tough match because Chennai is a good team and they have signed good players. We need to win tomorrow and then at the end of the season, we can look back and be proud of our team. At this moment we are only thinking about getting the victory tomorrow."
The Spaniard was also asked about how difficult it was to motivate the team after suffering a heavy defeat. Here’s what he said, “We need a solution for tomorrow, the solution has two parts - the solvent and the solute. When you mix this you get your solution, the solvent are the players and the solute is to play like a team, show effort, humility and the respect for their opponents. They have to play together like a team and only focus on the game. That’s what I have spoken about with my team; to play easy and to fight for each other and that is the solution”.
On the injuries front, Sumeet Passi won’t play tomorrow as he has an ankle injury. Robin Gurung had picked up an injury in the last game and has fractured his foot while Raju Gaikwad won’t feature as well as he is not yet match fit. For the defending Champions, Gregory Nelson won’t feature as he will serve a one-match suspension following the fourth yellow carf of the season, against Kerala Blasters.
With only two games remaining until the end of the season, the defending champions will definitely play for pride. However, for Jamshedpur FC, they cannot afford to drop the levels on their end and must grab all the three points to keep their play-off hopes alive. All this makes tomorrow's clash an intriguing one to watch where nothing short of a victory would do for Jamshedpur FC.
