It’s an away day for Jamshedpur as the squad travelled to Guwahati for an important clash with NorthEast United. Scott Cooper took questions from the media in the pre-match press conference. Here’s what he had to say.
On the previous result…
I think you can say, sometimes when you look at a goalless draw you have to say are we creating chances? And the answer is we created many, many chances. So I would say we're satisfied with the performance but disappointed with the result because we should have won, especially the last game as many chances were created. And you know we're a club that's developing a team, much like North East is. I think both ourselves and NorthEast have shown we are a new team, a new style, new belief, new way of playing, and new coaches and I think both teams are doing a very good job.
On managing Indian & foreign players in his setup...
If you're a coach of any team in Asia, you know that any team you put out is a minimum of 70% local players. If you don't prioritize the local players, you're going to be in big trouble. If you plan your team around foreign players, you will fail. There's been times when we've had only three foreign players on the pitch. I mean I was in the Champions League quarterfinals with Buriram United with two foreigners on the pitch. You've got a priority to put relevance and importance on your local players. You also have a responsibility to develop young players. As a coach you have to win games but there's a certain responsibility as well to the country you serve and work for, to develop young players. Fans love local players coming through. They love young players coming through. So foreign players are there to give something different or special in certain areas but the team is knitted together by the domestic players. That's always been my belief and philosophy and that would never change. If you want to do well in any league in Asia, you better know the local players, you better understand how they work, and how they operate and you need to assess and analyze them quite well. I feel like we've done that well. I feel like NorthEast has done that very well. As I said, we're very similar in many components. We've restructured the team. There's a new way of playing. Both teams play exciting football, good football, and possession football. I think we're two teams that are like to be watched because of the chances we create. It's good to watch so I think it's a good compliment for both clubs that we're making good ground.
On scouting young Indian players for his setup...
It's difficult for me to say because I've not spent much time in India. I can only take a look at other countries like Thailand or the Philippines where I've been and I can only take a look at our football academy, Tata Football Academy, which is steeped in tradition and has a great background. What I would say is football academies are the bloodline and the foundation of any football country's tradition and future. You have no future if you don't have academies. You're only going to keep looking at players that have gone from a club to a club or another country. You're only going to keep plucking players. You're never truly going to be successful like the French, Germans, and Spanish who all have put in programs that have progressed younger players and no one can be successful unless you have a foundation built. Tata Football Academy has a great tradition but it still, in the last few years, hasn't developed any key players and we need to do that as well. So I think if every club took care of their academy to a high level, you would see a ten-year progress that would be clear, relevant, and evident, and the country would succeed. India's got a love for football. The participation levels are probably higher than anywhere else in the world or Asia. There are so many participants and so there's no excuse. If you've got that number of players, you've got the clubs and the ISL is a good forum for them to look at, then why not? But it is the foundation of success.
On not converting chances and having the best defense...
It's a good point. If your team defends well and you create many chances, you know tactically you're doing something very well, very right. We can take confidence that we have the strongest defense in the league and we're creating many chances. However, we're not converting the chances. Now, I could say we've been unlucky. I could say it's early in the season, but the fact is we haven't converted chances and we need to start doing that. Chima has just come back to the line-up, Ritwik Das is now healthy, and we've got a new striker in, Steve Ambri. I think we don't need to panic as a football team because panicking would be conceding a lot of goals and you're not creating chances. We're the opposite. We're not conceding and we're creating chances. Just once that last part kicks in, it's a very difficult area to coach chances like that. Sometimes, if you prioritize that and focus too much on finishing you make the players a little bit anxious and more likely to snatch at chances rather than go through.
So, we're giving them different looks in training. We know we've got two or three strikers coming back into the team, so everything in our perspective looks good. That's not my concern. My concern for this game is only one thing. This will be our fifth game. The first game we played against East Bengal, so everything's clear and fine. We played Punjab in the last game after a break. But in the other three games, Kerala, Hyderabad, and this game, we have had fewer rest days than all of our opponents. Against Kerala and Hyderabad, we have less rest and against NorthEast, again we have less rest. Someone told me it's all even now. I don't see it even now. East Bengal was the first game, so it's not relevant. The game against Punjab was after a break, so it's not relevant. But how can it be that my team plays Kerala, Hyderabad and now NorthEast, and we have less rest than all three of those games? This is a disadvantage and I would say the league has to look at it because it lacks parity. Parity is a word that we need in football. We need to be fair about things. This is not an excuse. Our team won't hide behind that. But I'm saying this is a distinct disadvantage and it lacks parity and I'm disappointed that now it's our third game, again we have less rest than our opponent. We're yet to have one game when we have had more rest. In the game after this, we play Mohun Bagan. They won't play the game for three weeks, almost. Again, we will have to come from this game to play them. That'll be the fourth game of six. We've had less rest than anybody else. So we'll go into the break, we'll have played four of six games where we had less rest than our opponents. Now I would like someone to explain to me how that is fair because I don't see it. This is not North East's fault. It's not Hyderabad's fault. It's not Mohun Bagan's fault. And it's not Kerala's fault. But somebody scheduled it. Somebody's put that down on paper and we have to now face four out of our six games where we have less rest. And the two where we don't have less rest, we have the same result. Only two games are fair and in four games we have no lack of parity. And let me tell you, when you have a game and three or four days later you have another game, that one day's rest is key.
On Jamshedpur’s scoring prowess…
You can say forwards are judged on the goals they score. But you can also say performances are based on three things for strikers. One is the contribution to team defending because they are the first line of defense. Two is the contribution to playing and creating chances and being in the right position. And then finally is the finishing. I think all our forwards would say they are not satisfied, so how could I be satisfied? We can't be satisfied if we are not scoring goals. But what we can say is, are we in a position to score goals? Are we creating chances? Are we playing good enough football? Are they doing their work? Yes. And therefore, you have to believe as a coach that these players are more than capable of scoring.
On the importance of Elsinho...
His performance speaks for itself. Modern-day center backs should be good in the air, athletic, composed in position, and good in speed. Elsinho has all these above qualities. We were criticized previously for not having a good defense on paper and many journalists said so. These journalists thought live on the paper whereas my live in reality and well thought out. They write something and move on to others whereas I think and it lives with me to the next day and the following game. Elsinho came in always as a defensive midfielder or a center back but because on some transfer market, he was mentioned as a midfielder some people would say he is a midfielder which is why they don't have a foreign center-back. I never brought Elsinho to Jamshedpur to be a midfielder. We knew what we wanted and the type of player who will link well with the likes of Pratik & Dinpuia so it's going to be a nice balance. He has done better than I expected because when players transition to a new league and new culture. Moreover, Asian football is different and foreign players coming from Europe & South America have a responsibility to link some things in the team. But I can say, Pratik brings steel, presence and strength in air and is better with the ball as a center-back whereas Dinpuia comes with athleticism. They are a nice combination of the th
