Simon Grayson: I regret I picked the wrong lineup probably

Simon Grayson’s Bengaluru FC now stand at the eighth spot in the ISL table.

Bengaluru FC and Punjab FC battled to an exciting 3-3 draw in Gameweek 8 of the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. The match saw extraordinary display of teamwork from both sides, ultimately resulting in sharing of points after the end of stoppage time.

Bengaluru FC head coach, Simon Grayson spoke at the post-match press conference after summing up their outing against Punjab. Excerpts are below:

On their performance

Simon Grayson summarized his team’s performance against Punjab, including what went wrong and how he may be sorry of several replacements he made in the second half, as well as what truly made the difference tonight. He said, “About the team’s play like they did in the first half, of course I regret that I picked the wrong team (lineup) probably. But I didn’t expect us to play that bad with the team that we put out. I got a little bit anxious in the first 10-15 minutes, we weren’t looking for the ball enough. But we didn’t stop the opposition from playing, it was too easy, we made too many mistakes.”

Grayson added, “We were 3-1 down just before half-time and it became very difficult for us with schoolboy errors and that has probably been a bit disrespectful to schoolboys. Amateurish decision-making, decision-making on the ball, three headers, not wanting to compete, not wanting to run around. Coach always told me once when I was playing that you can always have a bad game with the ball but you can never have a bad game without it because nobody stops you from running around unless somebody does something to you physically.

“We can’t do that and we didn’t have enough urgency but credit to the players that they responded. Based on the second half’s performance, we should have won the game,” the manager claimed.

Grayson’s comments on Harsh Patre

When asked about Harsh Patre’s performance, the coach emphasized on both Robin Yadav and Harsh Patre’s contribution to the team and shed light on how Benagluru FC concentrates on academy players and gives young players the opportunity to showcase their potential.

He said,” Well I think what I’ve shown this year is that if you’re good enough you’ll get games. Four of the B team players have made their debuts already. I think we are, as a club, in a transition period, where we are allowing getting younger players into the first team. Harsh gets in it because he can handle the ball, he has got good energy, he likes to tackle and full credit to him.

Simon Grayson further mentioned, “He’s probably a good example to some of the more senior players who weren’t performing that sort of roles and responsibilities in the same with Robin Yadav as well. They’ve done enough to justify being picked whenever I pick them, because I think they are good players. There’s enough of a batch underneath as well, waiting to get into the first team.”

Update on Ryan Williams’ injury

Simon Grayson provided an update on Ryan Williams‘ condition after he was forced to leave the game against NorthEast United due to a hamstring trouble. The boss said, “It’s not an injury which is going to keep him out for a long period of time. If we can get him back before any of the games before Christmas, I think that’s more a realistic aim.

He added, “But again, with the hamstring, we’ve got to be very careful with him because he did it just after the first break in training and got back within 10 days and he just obviously had a recurrence so we’ve got to be very careful with it. Yes, he was a miss tonight because at least he would have had the energy and the quality because he has been a key player for us.”

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