I wanted to keep the winning squad as it is, asserts Aidy Boothroyd

The new Jamshedpur FC head coach reflected on the season ahead in a candid chat with Khel Now.

A few months back Aidy Boothroyd was appointed as the head coach of Jamshedpur FC, last season's ISL Shield winners. Boothroyd took over the reign from Owen Coyle who guided Jamshedpur FC to their first title. The 51-year-old has coached many top teams like Watford FC and has handled the English youth teams as well. 

Recently, Aidy Boothroyd spoke exclusively to Khel Now on the 'Beyond the Scores' podcast. Here are some excerpts from the same. 

Preparation for the new season

Jamshedpur FC had fielded the reserve squad at the Durand Cup 2022 and had a separate pre-season camp for senior players playing the ISL. The camp was held for a brief time ahead of the tournament. Discussing this, Boothroyd said, "The preparation is going on very well. We had a couple of bumps and bruises early on in the pre-season but we have come all out of those."

Business in the transfer market

Jamshedpur FC retained centre-backs Eli Sabia and Peter Hartley along with forward Daniel Chima Chukwu in the foreign contingent. For this season, they have brought in Harry Sawyer and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas. The core looks pretty much the same among the Indians with the exception of Narender Gahlot.

The tactician discussed this in detail. He said, ”We are happy with the players we have got and have a good young core. People talk about Ishan Pandita and Boris (Singh) and these two have got great opportunities to build careers and are key players for Jamshedpur FC. I will help and recommend them to play for the National team and help them succeed there as well.”

Backup players for each position

There was not much depth earlier in the Jamshedpur FC squad. But last season, Owen Coyle brought out the best in the youngsters. This season the new coach has stated, “We have now got a quality squad and we need to start performing to get the results. The core overall is very strong. Farukh Chaudhary is another good player. We have got added good depth. I am overall happy with the team provided it remains fit.”

Retaining key players

The team had retained Peter Hartley and Eli Sabia in the centre-back positions along with striker Daniel Chima, as mentioned earlier. Even Ritwik Das, who had offers from other clubs, was successfully retained at Jamshedpur.

Aidy Boothroyd quipped, “Without a doubt, Peter Hartley was a stalwart at the back. This season we have signed Pratik Chaudhuri to add more strength and put pressure on the regular ones to retain their places. I wanted to keep the winning squad as it is analysing what they have done before and replicating the same and signing a few hungry players.”

Indian players who impressed Aidy

There are many youngsters who have improved their game in the last season. The coach iterates, “I have to say Boris Singh has been exceptional in the preseason and Ritwik (Das) has also done pretty well.”

On modelling the league

In the past, the English model has been successful by bringing in players from foreign countries and making players adapt to their style. 

The coach says, “As an Englishman, the premier growth of Premier League and other Championships is due to the foreign coaches coming and working in the league. As a country, we have taken on board Germans, Spanish, and French and we have used our skills along with players' positives to produce better players and win. Putting all these things if India can think of playing foreign players and coaches on how they can make use of foreign players and revamp the league. Modelling is a very important thing.”

Preferred Formation

Talking about his preferred formation, Boothroyd informed, “The first thing we do is to focus on the style we want to be based on the performance. We will be a team that plays a mixed style depending on the players available and want to play in a variety of ways.”