Losing Jeremy & Pronay is even harder, Scott Cooper post Jamshedpur's goalless draw with Punjab FC

Scott Cooper was unhappy with the team’s lack of precision in the final third.

Jamshedpur FC played a goalless draw with Punjab FC in their latest Indian Super League 2023-24 contest. Scott Cooper’s men were unable to find the back of the net against a newly promoted outfit despite being the favourites to win at the JRD Tata Sports Complex on Sunday. 

While Jamshedpur FC created a lot of scoring chances, a lack of quality in the final third coupled with the absence of composure meant that the teams shared the points in the end. While speaking to the media in the post-match press conference, Scott Cooper talked about failing to convert the attacking opportunities and more from the game.

Here are the excerpts from the post-match press conference with the head coach of the Men of Steel:

Could not capitalise

Scott Cooper was unhappy and unsatisfied with the draw. He felt his team deserved to win and that the visitors were let off the hook in the end. He said, “No, I'm not satisfied with the result, of course. You can never say you deserve to win the game because you deserve to win the game. But what I will say is that we created many opportunities. We could have generated even more chances if we had been more careful in the attacking third. We didn't capitalize on our chances. So, I think we let Punjab off the hook a little bit.”

A physical game

Scott Cooper talked about Punjab FC’s tactics where he insisted that the visitors were focusing on playing long balls and banking on the physicality of their players. “We knew it was going to be physical because when you send the ball long, it becomes a physical battle. Perhaps Punjab was wary of our high press, I don't know. But in the first half, Punjab's tactics worked because they earned a point here. So, it was a very physical match,” he said while also pointing out that a lot of time was wasted towards the end by the PFC players. It could have been avoided by the referee who was too naive to give in to PFC’s demands, according to the head coach of JFC.

On key players

Scott Cooper also answered questions surrounding the key individuals from the squad. In the context of Ritwik Das, who did not get any playing time against PFC, the tactician said, “Ritwik is a fantastic player, and he's going to be very important for us. Tonight, we included him on the bench to help him get back into the mindset of a match. I didn't really think I would use Ritwik tonight, and he knew that.”

While speaking about two absentees Pronay Halder and Jeremy Manzorro, the head coach said, “They're both experienced and influential players, and it was evident that we missed them. Rei and Chima did a good job, but Jeremy and Pronay brought composure to our midfield and more creativity. Losing one is bad enough, but losing both of them is even harder.”