ISL 2020-21 | Jackichand Knows our style of play: Mumbai City’s Sergio Lobera

Mumbai City FC are on an excellent run of form as they have now extended their unbeaten run in the ISL to 11 matches now, thus equaling Bengaluru FC’s record of the longest unbeaten streak in the tournament, which they achieved under Carles Cuadrat in the 2018-19 season.

The Islanders have a five-point lead at the top of the ISL table at the moment. They have already proved themselves as a force to reckon with in this season, but they have strengthened their squad further with the acquisition of Jackichand Singh from Jamshedpur FC in trade for Farukh Choudhary.

“I know Jacki very well. He knows our style of play perfectly. So I think it’s very easy for him to adapt to our style of play and help us in improving our level,” Mumbai City head coach Sergio Lobera said on the eve of their match against Chennaiyin FC.

Jackichand also echoed Lobera’s sentiments and he said that he is looking forward to play under his management again.

“In every season I set a challenge for myself in terms of my performance in each game. Since joining the ISL, I have played the most at Goa under Lobera. So I hope to do well back at Mumbai where I have played before with [Hugo] Boumous, Mandar (Rao Dessai), [Mourtada] Fall and [Ahmed] Jahouh. I think it will be a good move for me,” Jackichand said.

“Jamshedpur was also a good experience under a new coach (Owen Coyle). His philosophy was a bit different so I wasn’t able to perform as well as I would have liked. I would like to thank the coach and Jamshedpur for giving me an opportunity at Jamshedpur,” he added.

Lobera also reiterated the importance of maintaining their consistency as he has seen a lot of things changing in a short span of time in the past.

“We are top of the table but especially in this league, in this situation, everything can change in seven days. Sometimes you have three games in 10 days and nine points is a lot of points. Till now the situation is good, but we want the best situation at the end of the season.

“I don’t need to explain the situation (exit from FC Goa) of last season. Hopefully it’s possible to achieve this (ACL qualification), this season,” Lobera stated.

The Spaniard also said that they can’t afford to be complacent at all in their upcoming match against Chennaiyin FC. The Marina Machans have given them some headaches previously.

“The way we won the last game, everyone in the dressing room was not happy because they knew that our second half was not good. I got very ambitious people in the team and I think it’s very important for me as a coach to work with people like that.

“You can watch the last game against Chennaiyin. The same situation happened. They are a very competitive team and it’s not about individualities but collective work. In the last game, they had options to win the game. I think it will be a very competitive game,” he said.

“Set-pieces are a very important part of the game to change the result and it’s very important for us to work in set-pieces, not only against Chennaiyin but against every team,” Lobera admitted, with Mumbai City scoring 11 of their 18 goals from set-pieces.