Mumbai City FC’s head coach Des Buckingham stated that they need to try and test things after losing their last league stage match against East Bengal FC by 1-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai on Sunday.
The Islanders had also lost their previous match against Bengaluru FC by 2-1. However, despite the loss against East Bengal FC, Des Buckingham was pleased with the performance of his team.
Meanwhile, Naorem Mahesh Singh scored in the 52nd minute for the visitors after receiving an assist from Cleiton Silva to give a decisive lead to his team.
Mumbai was not playing their full-strength team against East Bengal as Buckingham didn’t want to take any chances before the playoffs.
“I think the two times we played them in very similar circumstances. When we played in the Durand Cup, we left a lot of players because they were on bookings and that could’ve carried through to the knockout stages. We played (Gursimrat) Gill and Vinit (Rai) at center-back in that game,” Buckingham said in the post-match press conference.
“The same was tonight, we didn’t want to risk anyone who was on yellow cards and didn’t want to risk anyone with a slight knock,” he added.
Buckingham made as many as four chances to the playing XI for the East Bengal game after the loss against the Blues and gave maiden caps to some of the young guns, who were waiting in the wings.
“Tonight we use this as an opportunity to look at a lot of players. I’m delighted with the young players who made their debuts,” the head coach stated.
“We used this as a chance to test them and see what they could do, and I think they’ve passed the flying colours in terms of how they’ve adapted and shown what they can do. (I) was also making sure that we look after our squad and make sure we arrive at the semifinals with everybody available and now we will,” he added.
After having already secured the top position in the league stage and winning the League Shield, Buckingham wanted to test his bench strength.
“We used tonight for a different purpose. We knew we won the league and we were going to finish at least four points clear. We need to test and try things because we may need them in the semifinals,” Buckingham said.
Mumbai City FC will play the first leg of the semifinal on 7th March at the Mumbai Football Arena.
