Hope our players will apply the plan to highest level: Punjab FC coach Staikos Vergetis on facing East Bengal

Vergetis says that he wants to focus on one game at a time.

Bottom placed Indian Super League (ISL) side Punjab FC travel to Kolkata to take on East Bengal FC at the iconic VYBK in Kolkata. Punjab FC are yet to win a game ever since the team became the first team to be promoted to the ISL after winning I-League last season. Meanwhile, host East Bengal come after a convincing 5-0 win against NorthEast United FC in the midweek and will look to register yet another win against the North Indian side.

The Shers head coach Staikos Vergetis was accompanied by first team player Suresh Meetei in the pre-match conference which took place at VYBK earlier today and here are the excerpts of the press meet.

Thoughts on the previous game 

The Greek started off shedding light on their previous game. Punjab FC came agonizingly close to register their first win in the competition against Bengaluru FC. Unfortunately, the blues bounced back to level the game. 

Staikos Vergetis said, “In the last game, my team made much more better things than the previous games. And I was very happy for this. But some individual mistakes caused us to lose the two points, receiving only one from the three. But these mistakes make us more mature and better for the upcoming games.”

Thoughts on East Bengal

Staikos Vergetis further went and spoke about their opponent on Saturday and stated, “ We analysed East Bengal, one team with very good players. I believe that the position at the table that East Bengal is at this moment is not appropriate and for sure they will recover the lost points. (They have) Very good players, we analyzed them, we put our plan of the game and I hope our players will apply this plan to the highest level.”

Season up until now and the mentality of players for upcoming games

Punjab FC head coach then  touched upon their dismay season up until now and said the team will be taking one game at a time and is not thinking much about it.

Elaborating his point Staikos Vergetis said, “Mentality is always to see game by game, stay focused and try to transmit (the idea) into our players for the games that are coming. We are not making plans about the next 5 days.”

“All our focus (is)in the next game. What we have not done well, which are our weaknesses, we try to correct or to improve as a team. We have a lot of young players in our team who are playing for the first time in ISL. It is normal sometimes to make mistakes, to be lost in the field. I expect that in the game tomorrow we will make one more step up in the building up of the team that we want to build,” Staikos Vergetis further quoted

Suresh Meitei’s thoughts

The Manipuri defender who was part of the I-League winning team last season, was questioned to distinguish between the two leagues i.e. the I-League and ISL.  He shared his thoughts and mentioned, “ISL is very fast and we practice and focus on keeping these things in mind. We always remember that we are here in ISL by becoming the I-League champions. Every player in East Bengal is good and overall they are a good team. We are expecting a very tough match and we will play to the best of our capabilities tomorrow.”

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