Mumbai City FC head coach Petr Kratky believes his team needs to create more chances after a 4-2 win against Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian Super League at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai on Sunday.
Nikos Karelis scored a brace for the Islanders whereas Rodrigues and Chhangte also found the back of the net for the home team to give them a comprehensive win. Kratky’s team took five shots on target and they were able to convert four of them against the Yellow Tuskers.
“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 in the press conference.
Speaking on young Rodrigues who gave Mumbai City FC their crucial lead in the 75th minute after the visitors equalised to achieve 2-2 parity, 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.”
The Czech-Australian coach admitted they need to improve in certain areas to get more consistent results.
“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 next take on Chennayin FC on 9th November at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai.
