Juan Ferrando: The most important thing for me is performance of the team

The Mariners suffered a defeat despite creating a lot of chances.

ATK Mohun Bagan succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Mumbai City FC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan stadium in their recent Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 fixture on Saturday. A well-taken effort from Lallianzuala Chhangte was the difference between the two sides in the end. Juan Ferrando’s men created several scoring chances but could not find the back of the net. Part of the reason for their inability to score was the in-form Mumbai City FC goalkeeper Phurba Lachenpa who made impressive saves.

The tactician was disappointed with the result. However, he was positive during the post-match media interaction about his team’s ability to create scoring chances nonetheless. Here are the excerpts from the conversation:

Happy with the performance, not the result

Juan Ferrando was happy with the performance of his players who created a lot of scoring chances. “It's football, sometimes you win, draw or lose. The most important thing for me is the performance of the team is much better. Of course, we are disappointed with the result but I think it is not because that Mumbai City FC in the second half was better than us,” he said.

A collective responsibility

Talking about his team’s dry run in terms of scoring goals, the Juan Ferrando said, “The solution is not just one person. The responsibility of scoring the goals is on all the 11 players on the field. The most important thing is to create opportunities. The performance of the keeper of Mumbai (Phurba Lachenpa) was excellent.”

Injury problems

Juan Ferrando was particularly vocal about his team suffering from several injuries this season. Talking about how it affects his game plans, the tactician said, “We had six foreign players today. After the first game against Chennaiyin FC, we never used six foreign players. It was the first time we had six foreign players and that is the first reason (for the team’s performance in the season) for me. The second reason is that we have a big problem that can't be worked upon in training and that is we have a lot of injuries.”

“In the last three months, it has been impossible to work with the (full) team. It was impossible to prepare our plans. It is part of football, not an excuse but this is the truth. I am happy because they tried to show their character, tried to do their best.” he further added while explaining the injury problems this season.

Praise for the Islanders

Juan Ferrando also reserved praise for the visitors who took away the three points. He said, “When teams are fighting for the championship, the first position, then it is because one day the goalkeeper is going to be great…they have a lot of players with high performance, without a lot of injuries. This is the truth. The performance of Mumbai City FC has been good this season. We have been unlucky in some situations.”