Des Buckingham: We have started to open up teams and play in different ways

Published at :November 18, 2022 at 5:44 PM

Modified at :December 13, 2023 at 1:01 PM

(Courtesy : ISL Media)

The tactician also shared the psychology behind recruiting players.

Mumbai City head coach Des Buckingham called upon his team to remain humble and grounded following their thumping 4-0 victory against Bengaluru FC at the Mumbai Football Arena on Thursday. The Islanders rolled over the visitors with two goals in both halves to record their fourth victory of the ISL 2022-23 season. Here are the excerpts from Buckingham's post-match press conference.

Can Mumbai City outscore any team in the league?

With 20 successful strikes in seven games, Mumbai lead the goal-scoring charts in the league. They have netted 10 times in their last two games with multiple goal-scorers coming into the fore. At this rate, does Des Buckingham think that they can outscore any opposition in the competition?

"I am happy with the result. I am happy with the performance. As I said, it is about trying and getting better with every game. It's game seven and we have shown different ways that we can play. To have again four goals, it's very good. That won't be the case every week," Buckingham said.

He added, "We won't get carried away with the results and the performances. We go to NorthEast in eight days and we must take every game at a time. The players here are very humble, very grounded and they won't need reminding of that. Overall very happy, and keeping a clean sheet which was our third for the season."

On multiple goal-scorers joining the party

Last week, six different players notched a goal each to help Mumbai defeat Chennaiyin FC 6-2. A similar pattern unfolded against Bengaluru FC as well. Mumbai have seen constructive on-field contributions from different quarters this season. The head coach insists that it is not unintentional as they have pursued this approach through their recruitment throughout this year.

"I think to add to last week's six with six different goal-scorers, it's nice. Because, I think we spoke about last year, we had Igor Angulo and when Igor stopped scoring, we weren't able to score. We didn't really create enough opportunities from different areas to allow us to win games and perform," Des Buckingham explained.

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He added, "We have purposely gone out and recruited players to play the style of football that we wanted. That started about 12 months ago in January. By doing the work that's being done both on and off the field, we are developing players and a playing style."

"We have started being able to open up teams and play different ways that allow more goal-scoring opportunities from different areas. This makes us less predictable. If a team manages to stop us doing one thing, we have got a way of doing something else," the tactician elaborated.

He further mentioned, "That's the pleasing thing for me. We have got three young Indian goal-scorers again on the sheet tonight. We have spoken about being a club that develops and recruits the best young Indian players here. Because we have the chance to do that. But they are also surrounded by some excellent senior Indian players and the six foreign players we have here to help and develop them as individuals and us as a team."

On pressing hard and playing smart

Buckingham seems to be instilling a significant amount of pragmatism in his team's style of play this year. He acknowledges that the side wishes to press hard to recover possession but also admits that this is not an approach that can be followed for the entire duration of the game.

Instead, he suggests blending this style with some smart collective positioning without the ball.

"I think when we want about how we want to play, most people thought it's with the ball. The game style that we have, it's not just what we do with the ball but for periods of the game, whether it's 30 per cent or 50 per cent, we don't have it. So, we need to position ourselves as well as we can," Des Buckingham said.

The 37-year-old added, "We want to be a team that goes and presses and wins the ball as hard as we can. Because we know if we do that we will be able to create chances on the opposition's goal quickly. The players that we have, hopefully, we can capitalize on that."

"For the players to do that, they need to be fit - as fit as they can be to do that for 90 minutes. But then it's about being smart. Because they can't do it for full 90 minutes, they need to position themselves so that when the situation arises, they go and they go together. If they do that, which we saw in the first-half towards the end and the last periods of the second half, not only do we create opportunities but we win the ball back and then we play our game," the head coach signed off.