Scott Cooper reveals why Jeremy Manzorro was subbed off early

Scott Cooper gave an update on the new foreign signing's arrival.

After picking up just a solitary point from their first two ISL games, Jamshedpur FC are back on the road with a win over Hyderabad FC. The Men of Steel had a fantastic game throughout the 90 minutes, and dominated the tie.

Despite creating a number of opportunities, they failed to capitalise on them, and were left hanging up until the 76th minute, when Rei Tachikawa scored a mesmerising free-kick to light up the furnace.

Jamshedpur’s head coach Scott Cooper spoke to the media after the game. Here are some of the excerpts from the conversation.

Thoughts on the game

Jamshedpur put up a great fight against the Nizams, and for the very first time, showed their might on the pitch. With three points in the bag, Scott Cooper shared his thoughts on the tie.

“I think it was a hard game for us because it's the third game in 10-11 days. And because we played like a pressing game with a lot of energy, you could see we looked tired. I mean we're lucky we didn't get big injuries here, and so I think we have to be really proud of the team's performance,” he opined.

“At half time, we had to slightly change the tactics, because I could see we can't press so much for this game because the energy levels weren't there. So we grouped ourselves at half time, and then during the second half, you could see what happened. They didn't really have a shot in the second half, but the way we were going in the first half, because we didn't have the energy levels, we looked like we'd lose the game,” he added. 

Thoughts on Rei Tachikawa’s performance

Rei Tachikawa rose up to the occasion, and delivered the perfect free-kick goal for Jamshedpur FC. The Japanese, who looked a bit all over the place in his first two games, finally seemed to have been adapting to Cooper’s style of play tonight. Moreover, he was one of the most active and impactful players in the lot.

“He's on time for training and works hard, he's got a great attitude. Everybody likes Rei because he's just a great guy. He works so hard in training sessions and he can play in several positions. So we used him tonight in two or three positions - down the middle, to the right, defensive midfield. He never complains, he does his job,” the tactician mentioned.

“He glanced about four or five shots tonight, two or three were blocked. The free-kick was great quality. But here we just showed that we can adapt to fatigue a little bit. We changed, played a little bit deeper defensively. But the points were essential tonight,” he added.

 A message for the fans

Scott Cooper also appreciated the turnout on the night and the great support shown by the fans. He said, “They were fantastic all night. Really great. They really helped the team in the last 15 minutes to focus and defend well. But even the last 15 minutes, when we were defending well, we still had big chances because we kept compact and organized. The fans played a massive part in that.”

On the break coming up

After a pretty busy schedule for the past two weeks, Jamshedpur FC now have a lot of time ahead of their next game. When asked about how he plans on utilising the time ahead of him, Scott Cooper said, “I feel like I'm a kid on Christmas Day now. Ritwik is coming back, Steve Ambri arrives tomorrow. The players can refresh themselves.”

“We kept Jeremy out of the game because he was looking like he was going to get a big injury. So we had to be careful with that. Also now I've got the time to add more levels to our organization, more levels to the way we play,” he concluded.