Vincenzo Alberto Annese: Need to try to win as team, not as players

The head coach also talked about Jordan’s availability in this game.

NorthEast united are having arguably one of the poorest seasons in the history of the Indian Super League. In 16 games so far this season, the Highlanders have only won and drawn a solitary game, losing out on 14 different occasions. Vincenzo Alberto Annese's side are also out of the qualification race, and are playing for the sake of a few points on the board, and to avoid the tag of the team with the least points in a season in the history of the League.

NorthEast take on Jamshedpur on Saturday the 4th, and will be looking to get a win and bring home all three points against a team that is also struggling at the moment.

Ahead of the game, NorthEast United head coach Vincenzo Alberto Annese and player Mohamed Irshad spoke to the media. This is how the conversation went.

How Vincenzo plans on motivating his players

NorthEast’s game against Jamshedpur, is a battle between the bottom two sides of the table, and the sad reality is that both the contingents have no chance of qualifying for the playoffs whatsoever.

When asked about how Vincenzo manages to keep his players motivated during such tough times, this is what the coach had to say.

“ First of all, we play with a team that is up to us nine point, we need to stimulate ourselves to reach them. That’s the maximum we can. So, this is a great motivation for us. Secondly, we play at home. When I’m here as a coach (at home), we have done so far so well. So we hope, that this game can be a good result for us, because we need this result for the club, for the president, for the staff, the players.

Thoughts on their rivals Jamshedpur FC

Jamshedpur themselves are having a pretty poor season. The Red miners have been able to pick on nine points so far this season, and are also out of the playoff spot.

“ Well, they performed well in the last game, they don’t deserve to lost against Mumbai. They have great determination in attack. They have a problem in defensive phase, they get(concede) a lot of goal. I think they are second after us (in terms of teams who have conceded the most goals this season)”, Vincenzo exclaimed.

“And they have changed the system, before they used to play with five, now they play with four, so for sure they have some problems, and we try to really do a great performance for us. It depends only upon us, depend on how the guys want to run, how the guys they want to try to do what we tried during the preparation”, the coach added.

Impact of Jordan’s absence

Northeast united are missing their main man Wilmar Jordan, who is out due to a suspension. When asked about the problems Northeast will face due to his absence, Vincenzo had this to say:

“Yeah for sure, missing as a leader, missing as a great player, but we hope that tomorrow whole team performs well, I mean we cannot depend on only one player, it is a big loss for us, but in this situation, we need to try to win as a team not as a player.”

Vincenzo Alberto Annese’s plans on the oncoming Super Cup

Northeast United’s season in the ISL is over, as they are out of the top six race. But with the Super Cup coming up in April, these last few games can be a great medium for Vincenzo to train his men for the approaching competition. When asked about the same, Vincenzo said the following:

“Well we have a good opportunity in the Super Cup to be a different team and I think day by day, the guys try to understand me, I try to understand them. That is not always easy. We try to perform well day by day. Even Super Cup will be in only one location, so the atmosphere of the location will be completely different, and after one month, maybe some players stay maybe some players go.”

How does conceding late winners affect the mentality of the dressing room

NorthEast have conceded a number of late goals this season, as a result of which the team lost a game from a position of coming out with a draw. When Irshad was asked about how this affects the mentality of the team, this is what he had to say.

“ Yeah we are trying to give our best all matches, but unfortunately we are not getting good results, but we are still fighting, we have still five more matches, so we go all out, and bring maximum points and we try to finish good way, so we have win all match and we have to take all point upcoming matches. So we are focusing and trying hard and hopefully we will get it.