I was irritated with what happened in first half, says Thomas Brdaric

Chennaiyin’s head coach also spoke on his team’s chances of making it to the playoffs.

Chennaiyin taste defeat at the hands of Bengaluru, in a game in which they had no one else to blame but themselves. Brdaric’s men were absolutely terrible in the first half, as they made three huge mistakes that led to goals for Bengaluru. A lack of proper position from a corner led to their first slip up, which was followed by two huge individual mistakes by Jiteshwor and Mitra respectively, which left Chennaiyin 3-0 down at half time, a deficit they couldn’t recover from despite their best efforts in the second half.

Chennaiyin now find themselves in a difficult position on the table, as they fail to marginalize the gap between them and the 6th place Odisha. A defeat at the Kanteerva also means that Bengaluru are now ahead of the Mariners, leaving them 8th in the points table.

Following the game, Chennaiyin head coach Thomas Brdaric spoke to the media in relation to the match. This is how the conversation went.

Thoughts on the game

Thomas Brdaric had this to say, when he was asked about his outlook on the fixture. He answered, “We conceded three goals in the first half after inviting the opponent with our errors. In the second half, we changed ourselves and won the half 1-0. However, we are not close anymore to sixth place but we have to fight as we still have the hope that with 15 points we'll be able to reach our targets.”

Chennaiyin’s position in top six race

Chennaiyin’s top-six hopes have taken a hard hit following today’s defeat. They are now behind Odisha and Bengaluru for the clash for the 6th position in the table. When asked about his impression of the situation, Thomas Brdaric spoke the following words.

“Everbody wants to go to playoffs, because that is the objective. It was some experience today, for some players on how your mistakes can invite the opponent, and then you lose those matches. But we actually don’t want to lose, because we came here to grab points, and to chase for position six”

“We have to analyse the match, we have to show the players what they did, we had some good spells, but we also committed mistakes that we can’t allow, and that’s why we’ve brought zero points home.\,” the Chennaiyin FC head coach continued.

Bradic’s opinion on Chennaiyin’s second half

Chennaiyin we’re able to pick themselves up after a poor first half, and came back much stronger in the second 45. They even scored a goal and didn’t make it easy for Bengaluru. When asked about his perspective on this second-half performance, Brdaric said:

“Of-course, I mean I’ve been encouraged in the second half. This is what set us apart maybe to other teams, is we have a good mentality, and of-course its encouragement to see the second half. This is the standard we want to have in the next matches, that mentality and attitude, and if everybody stays in their task, then we can win matches.”

“Yes, it hurts, absolutely. I was irritated with what happened in the first half, and yeah we changed our setup in the second half, we brought new players, and it wasn’t really bad.”

Comments on his Half time substitutions

Thomas Brdaric made three substitutions at the onset of the second half, in an attempt to put an extra foreigner in the attack, and make some technical changes that could help his team.

“Ofcourse, I mean when you’re 3-0 down at half time, then you have to change something, because many things are going wrong.”

Brdaric’s plan moving forward

“Of-course, we have about five games left in hand. In the second half we played better, and this gives me a hope how we can approach next match and as I said already, we have 15 points to catch and we can get 15 points with the performance we showed in the second half.