Des Buckingham sees Hero Super Cup as a platform for Mumbai City youngsters

The mentor also expressed his delight following Mumbai’s Champions League qualification.

Following their win against Jamshedpur FC for a place in next season’s AFC Champions League, Des Buckingham's Mumbai City are all set to commence their Hero Super Cup campaign on the 11th of April, against Churchill Brothers.

Ahead of the game, coach Des Buckingham spoke to the media regarding the context of the game, and a number of other things. Here are the excerpts from the conversation.

Indian squad for Mumbai City in the Hero Super Cup

Mumbai have opted for an all-Indian squad in the 2023 Hero Super Cup campaign, as having already secured the spot for Champions League, the Hero Super Cup doesn’t hold the same amount of significance for them as it does for other clubs, as a win in the Super Cup only earns them an AFC Cup spot. Therefore, Des Buckingham decided to use this competition as a medium to give more and more opportunities to Indian players.

“I've spoken about this since I arrived at the club, about wanting the best Indian players and to be able to develop those Indian players as well as we could. A large core of the group that we have still, that will go to this tournament, featured heavily and have been a large part to the reason as to why we've been successful this year.

He added, "But it's an opportunity for us to go and really see and offer further development opportunities and time to not just the group that have played, but also some of those younger players that may get an opportunity or maybe get some more game-time to see what they can do. And that was a decision that we took.

"It kind of ties into what we've spoken about since I arrived, which was trying to develop and give a platform to these players to showcase what they can do and this tournament certainly presents us with that opportunity," he further stated.

Preparations ahead of Hero Super Cup opener

Churchill Brothers have been a pretty decent team this season, and are also in a great run of form at the moment, having come off the back of a commanding 6-0 win against Real Kashmir. When asked about how he is preparing his team for this encounter, Des Buckingham mentioned:

“We're preparing this team the same way that we prepared for every ISL, Durand Cup and Champions League game that we've had before. We know they've had some change, certainly since the league season finished for them. They've obviously played that qualifying game, which we were able to watch and get a feel for what they may do against us.

"But as always the we'll be as prepared as we think we can be for that game, for what they may throw our way. But the same as the rest of the season, it's going to be making sure that we're as prepared as we can be in terms of having control of what we have here, to try and do what we want, which is to continue playing a very attacking and exciting brand of football and give these players a real good platform to go and showcase what they're capable of doing, whether it be against a very strong I-League team or against the two ISL teams which will follow," he added.

Opinions on other two group opponents

Mumbai have already faced NorthEast United and Chennaiyin FC twice in the ISL this season, and have won both the games against those two teams. When asked about how confidence this gives his team, Des Buckingham said:

“It was an enjoyable season and a successful season for all of us here. But again, this is the, this is the fifth tournament in 12 months that we've played in. So I think that the ISL season is done and teams will approach this tournament differently. So we'll take learnings from it. I look at NorthEast and there's been a lot of changes there. So it'd be interesting to see what they do and how they set up.

“And we know Chennai, Chennai have give us two very good games, certainly the game we had at home and they're going full strength with everybody. So it's a really good test and opportunity for us to try and set up and be successful in this tournament as we have been throughout the year,” he added.

Consistent performances from his team

Mumbai have been playing pretty well in the past few seasaons, and have been very consistent with their performances. When asked about how much this means to him, the mentor mentioned:

“When we look back, I think this will be the last time an Indian team goes to the the Champions League for a couple of years because of the reformatting of that competition and that's unfortunately at the moment losing that given spot that we have. So to go and do what we did last year and I think there were two wins and a draw and finish second in a group. That would be something that we will try and do the again and we'll try and go better.”

“But that level of competition is extremely high and it's something we will do again. We'll try and take and do what we did last time and add to that. But the quality of those teams in there; it's a fantastic challenge. It's not one to be scared of. We've shown what we can do in it,” Buckingham added.

On his Indian contingent

When asked to name out some of his most impressive Indian players, who he thinks will be very much benefitted by this tournament, Des Buckingham said:

“I think I have listed a lot of names earlier around the players that have taken to the field pretty regularly in a starting XI. So all of those, we got the Golden Ball winner in Chhangte, who will take to the fields. We will field our strongest team that we can and then we will try giving game-time to those younger players as and when we think that there is a need and that we want to.”

He also listed a number of other impressive young Indian players, and said, "They are all very young but they are all excited and that is why it is good to work with them day in day out. That is why this tournament will provide a fantastic platform for them to go and show what they can do by playing more often.”