Simon Grayson: When you don't win, next best thing is draw

Simon Grayson’s Bengaluru FC are now four games without a win.

Bengaluru FC shared points with NorthEast United FC in a thrilling Indian Super League (ISL 2023-24) encounter at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati. Sunil Chhetri scored the game’s only goal for the Blues with a penalty kick in the first half. However, just before the lemon break, Aleksandar Jovanovic inadvertently headed the ball into his own net, tying the game for the Highlanders.

Bengaluru FC have now gone four games without a win, and the Blues’ result did not improve following the lengthy international break. It will be stimulating to see how Simon Grayson prepares from now on and what he has in store to achieve the desired outcomes in their forthcoming ISL games.

The tactician spoke at the post-match press conference. Excerpts are below:

Simon Grayson’s observations on the result

Simon Grayson talked about how a draw can be crucial at times and shed light on NorthEast’s pivotals from today’s encounter. The boss said, “When you don’t win a game, the next best thing is a draw. We weren’t surprised how NorthEast were going to play because they played very well. They’ve got some really exciting wingers. They’ve got some good centre forwards. A nice way of playing. It was always going to be a difficult game for us. But we started the game poorly but we came through that. They put a lot of pressure on us from set-pieces. But we found a way back into it, got the goal.”

He added, “Then the disappointment we got, a minute or two before half-time that we allow them the opportunity to get the goal. Even with down to 10 men, we’ve got to make sure that we manage the game well enough to get to 1-0 and readdress the things that we need to do. Then suddenly it’s 1-1 and my team talk changes. It wasn’t one of our best performances, but it was another point for us. Tonight we gave the ball away a little bit too easily, too cheaply, even when we weren’t under pressure we gave it away. So we need to be better from that, but there are lots of positive things and some things that we certainly know we need to work on.”

Playing at home

The Bengaluru FC boss spoke on Curtis Main’s involvement along with the advantages of playing at home and how things can make a difference. He said, “Well, I think you give opposition the credit that you’re at home, that you know that the team are going to come out on the front foot with the crowd behind you, and you have to withstand that. And we got through that spell. We could have been better within that spell of seeing it better, managing the game better, but we have to deal with that situation.”

Grayson also stated, “It’ll be the same when we go back to Bengaluru to play our next four out of five games which we’ll want to start on a positive manner. So it’s not something that doesn’t happen in most games when you’re an away team. You just need to see it through and make sure you don’t concede in that period of time. We didn’t, but obviously conceding just before half-time was a bit of a blow for us.”

Simon Grayson’s reflections on Shankar’s performance

When asked about Shankar Simpingiraj’s performance today, Simon Grayson said, “I thought he did okay to be fair. We wanted to go with one engine centre-back with a foreigner so that we can get an extra foreigner at the top end of the pitch. But yes, he was probably a little bit nervous at the start but he grew into the game and defended against some good players.”

The coach concluded by adding, “Nestor is a good centre forward and the two wide players are a handful so it was a test for our back-four. When you look at it, in a call like that, they’ve only scored from an own goal. But I see the bigger picture that they could have had other opportunities as well.”

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