Chennaiyin FC's Owen Coyle reveals crucial injury update ahead of FC Goa clash in ISL

Owen Coyle also spoke about his team’s performances.

The atmosphere in the Chennaiyin FC camp has certainly become better following their 3-2 win against NorthEast FC last week. Wilmar Jordan Gil turned out to be the hero on the night for the Marina Machans with a brace on his birthday.

The next challenge for Owen Coyle’s side would be against Manolo Marquez’s FC Goa. The Gaurs have struggled defensively this season. However, they have a wonderful record at the Marina Arena, winning seven out of their 10 Indian Super League (ISL) games in Chennai.

Owen Coyle’s thoughts

In the press conference before the game against FC Goa, Owen Coyle was asked about his team’s recent performances. The Marina Machans failed to beat the likes of Mohammedan SC and Hyderabad FC but have had good results against comparatively better opposition.

When asked about this, the Chennaiyin FC manager said, “We didn’t take our chances. When the chances come we have to be more clinical. It wasn’t that the performances against Odisha FC or NorthEast United were better than other performances.”

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Owen Coyle added, “I’m not here to preach but sometimes people just look at results and judge the game based on results. As a coach, we need to look at if we dominated the game and took our chances. Our poor performances have not been on an outstanding level but at least at a decent level.”

Chennaiyin FC had lost their opening three games last season. On the other hand, the Marina Machans have picked up seven points from four ISL games so far. Talking about this, Owen Coyle concluded by saying, “We are in a far better position than last year and I believe we are a far better team than last year but a few other teams have gotten better as well. On our day we can go toe to toe with anyone.”

Ankit Mukherjee suffers major injury

As disclosed by Owen Coyle, Chennaiyin FC’s left-back Ankit Mukherjee will be out for at least 4-6 weeks. The 28-year-old suffered the injury in the second half of their game against NorthEast United FC.

Though Ankit finished the game against the Highlanders, it seems that he is now a long-term injury concern. Mandar Rao Desai and Vignesh Dakshinamurthy are the other left-back options that the Marina Machans have in their squad.

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