My dressing room is very normal: Juan Ferrando rules out 'player clashes' rumour

The situation took limelight when Armando Sadiku was denied by Jason Cummings and Dimitri Petratos from taking a penalty.

Mohun Bagan Super Giant maintained their dominance in the 2023-24 AFC Cup with a gritty 2-1 win over Maziya S&RC at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on Monday (2 October). A brace from Jason Cummings (28’, 90+2’) was enough to help them get a win and maintain their hold on the top spot in Group D despite the Australian horribly fluffing a penalty attempt during the game.

Juan Ferrando’s thoughts on the win

Juan Ferrando was pleased that his side was able to grind through a win, as he said after the game: “It was a difficult match as I said before. This team defeated Bashundhara, they have good transitions and have very good players. Their tactics make it difficult to play against them. It was necessary to move the ball quickly, and find spaces in one-two touches. It was a difficult and tough match for us.”

Ferrando on the penalty fiasco and Sahal Abdul Samad impact

When asked about the penalty fiasco, where Jason Cummings tried to pass it to Dimitri Petratos but ruined it, the tactician replied: “This was the player's decision. They are the ones on the field. They make decisions on these things at the moment. Maybe they got overconfident. They thought of it because they were confident. They’ll think twice about these things before taking the next penalty. But I’m happy with the reaction of my team. For me, that is most important.”

Ferrando praised Sahal Abdul Samad’s impact to set up the winner after coming on in the second half. He said: “Everyone knows that Sahal is good in finding empty spaces and dribbling. We decided to use him because in the first half, Dimitri found the spaces well but it’s difficult to play like that for 90 minutes. Sahal was fresh and could work at the same level.”

Thoughts on decision-making for that penalty and Armando Sadiku issue

Juan Ferrando further opened up on his players’ ridiculous decision-making for the penalty, saying: “They are on the field. When they make decisions, sometimes you have to tell them no. In this moment, they make decisions because they are confident. We have had no success in this, but maybe next time they’ll think better in these actions. They took the decision because they trusted the action, but we had no success at the end.”

Before the penalty, Armando Sadiku wanted to take the kick but was seemingly denied by the Australian forward duo. When asked if Sadiku is being isolated in the squad, Ferrando replied: “Everyone knows before the games about who takes the set pieces and who takes the fouls. These depend on a lot of things. Sometimes they take responsibility and maybe they discuss about the best moments. There was no fighting or anything among the players. My dressing room is very normal. Dimitri and Cummings were thinking of this action, but that’s all. No more things.”

Has this penalty routine ever been repeated?

The Spaniard also opened up on whether he’s ever seen this kind of penalty routine in training. He revealed: “In training sessions, they do some of these actions. They practice different shots and different things. It’s normal. We don’t need to talk so much about these actions. Maybe if it was a goal everyone would’ve been ‘wow’. It’s okay. The reaction of the team is the most important. When the team fought a lot in the second half to win the game, that is the most important thing. Around the world, you have a lot of fouls but we don’t need to give a lot of importance to these actions.”

Change in venue for Bashundhara game?

Finally, when asked if he believes that his side might be at a disadvantage if the home game against Bashundhara Kings is moved to Odisha, Juan Ferrando replied: “Of course we prefer to play here in Kolkata in front of our supporters. It’ll be an important match away because Odisha isn’t our home.

“But we can’t do anything on this. We need to prepare the team to play in Odisha. We’ll try to win that game. I hope to get a good result because the group stages are very close and it’s necessary to continue in the same way,” he concluded.