Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 4 (ANI): Mumbai City FC head coach Petr Kratky expressed both his satisfaction and the need for more improvement after their thrilling 4-2 win against Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Mumbai Football Arena on Sunday.
The game saw relentless energy from both sides, with Nikolaos Karelis giving Mumbai City FC a two-goal lead, first in the 9th minute and then scoring again through a penalty in the 55th minute.
Jesus Jimenez in the 57th minute converted a penalty, halving Mumbai City FC’s lead before Kwame Peprah equalised with a header in the 71st minute. Peprah received his marching orders after receiving a second yellow in the 72nd minute. The islanders again took the lead in the 75th minute with a goal from Nathan Rodrigues and secured their three points with a final goal from Lallianzuala Chhangte in the 90th minute
Speaking at the post-match press conference, the Mumbai City FC head coach celebrated the result but emphasised the need for improvement as despite leading 2-0, Kerala Blasters FC equalised in the second half.
“I think we four scored goals… Our team needs to be creating goal-scoring opportunities. Then we just sometimes miss a little touch on the end. But again, if you look at overall, how we get in the chances and opportunities, I’m very happy with that. Again, we will work to make it better and score more goals, but we can’t expect to score from every single chance…You have to accept. The striker (Karelis) scored two goals today, fantastic…He has goal-scoring opportunities every game, which we are very happy about, and we try to keep him in that form for the rest of the season… Overall, I’m very happy. We just scored four goals, we have to look at why we conceded two because that’s the part of the game where we shouldn’t allow it, leading 2-0…But again, overall, with the changes, I’m happy.” Kratky said as quoted by the ISL official website.
Speaking on young Rodrigues who gave Mumbai City FC their crucial lead in the 75th minute he said, “Nathan came to this club before I did. He came to this club because he has the potential to play at a high level. He’s a good footballer, but there are also a lot of things we need to improve and we need to keep him motivated and play good football because that’s why he is here. I’m very happy for him, but it’s a long journey for him. The consistency now, especially with the young players like him, is the key. So we know about his quality, and what he can do, and he will get better and better. But there will be also setbacks, bad forms and mistakes that happen, but we are here to support him and make him the best version of himself and play good football. So it’s not easy to play the way how we want to play, but he has potential and we will try to keep him motivated and make him as consistent on the top levels as we can.”
Kratky highlighted the need for improvement but also emphasised the need to look beyond perfection. “There are a lot of things that we need to improve. Long ball, second ball, we’re going to Chennai. There are teams in the league who will play a longer game. But again, this is part of the journey. Not always it’s perfect. Perfection doesn’t exist. We play with the humans. All I ask is that our players do their best every time they step on the pitch. We have to also accept. They will make mistakes, but support them and try to show them how it can be done better and work with them. It’s a process. In every part of the game, we need to get better and be more dominant. But again, you have to also accept that as humans, will be not 100% right because they are not robots.”
Mumbai City FC will face Chennayin FC next in the group stage match on November 9 in Chennai.(ANI)
