Eelco Schattorie: We are trying to rebuild in Kerala Blasters

The Kerala Blasters head coach also revealed that repeatedly changing lineups hurt the southerners this season.

Kerala Blasters and Odisha FC will face each other in their respective final games of the league season. As things stand, both these teams are out of contention for a playoffs spot too. Ahead of the game, Kerala Blasters head coach Eelco Schattorie interacted with the media in the pre-match press press conference. Vlatko Drobarov, who accompanied Eelco Schattorie to the press conference was asked about how the team prepared for this match, with regards to knowing that it wouldn’t have any impact on their hopes for further qualification. “We came here with motivation to win this game even if it’s not important if we go to finals or not, also for them. But, we see ourselves; we came with motivation to get these three points and to fight until the end. It is most important to win this game,” he said. [KH_ADWORDS type="3" align="center"][/KH_ADWORDS] The 27-year-old defender further added, “The season was little bit difficult with many injuries. But, we fight until the end. Last game we showed a good game. I think it was one of the best games of the season. I hope so tomorrow we will finish the season in a good way.” Eelco Schattorie was prompted to elaborate on what went wrong for the his team this season. “Kerala (Blasters) in their last two seasons didn’t do anything. They sacked a lot of coaches. Lots of coaches came, they had to go. We are trying to re-build here a lot. What for this season went wrong for sure is that we are going to play game number 18 tomorrow and 17 times I haven’t had an unchanged team. That means 17 times I have a different lineup. Not because I want to change, but I have to change because of injuries,” the Dutchman said. [KH_ADWORDS type="4" align="center"][/KH_ADWORDS] The tactician further went on to explain about the need to put a similar starting XI on the field. "(Bartholomew) Ogbeche and Messi  (Bouli) have played together. Ogbeche has scored 13 goals and because they have played 4-5 games in a row together, you can see them building a relationship. So, every time I have to change the defence, every time I have to change the midfield, then it is very difficult," the 48-year-old remarked. “Because in the end, we played some really good games. Many teams after the games have complimented us on the way we played against them. But, it would be really good to have a little bit of luck also. We need to be consistent with the team; at least 70-80% of the time should be the same playing XI,” Eelco Schattorie concluded.

Team News

Kerala Blasters will be missing the services of Prasanth K, who is out with an injury. Along with him, Mario Arques is still out. Goalkeeper Rehenesh is also said to have an injury and is expected to be unavailable against Odisha on Sunday.

Head To Head

These two teams have faced each other only once in their history, a game which ended in a goalless draw. [KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News | Article Continues Below"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]

Predicted XI

Bilal, Lalruatthara, Raju, Drobarov, Carneiro, Gning, Cidoncha, Sahal, Narzary, Messi Bouli, Ogbeche.

Broadcast

The match will be telecast live on the Star Sports Network from 7:30 PM IST on Sunday evening. It would also be streamed live on Hotstar and Jio TV.