'We want to go for the Durand Cup' - Juan Pedro Benali shares plans for next season

Juan Pedro Benali also congratulated his boys for their constant hard work and results in this ISL season.

NorthEast United FC finished their 2023-24 Indian Super League (ISL) season on the best possible note with a statement 3-0 win over Sergio Lobera’s Odisha FC. With this victory, the Highlanders also brought an end to their five-match victory-less run against the Juggernauts.

Parthib Gogoi opened the scoring early in the game before Nestor Albiach skipped past everyone and doubled the lead. Finally, young winger Phalguni Singh made a lightning-quick run into the box and scored a wonderful goal just before half-time to take NorthEast 3-0 up.

After the game, NorthEast United’s head coach Juan Pedro Benali spoke to the media. Here are the excerpts.

Thoughts on the season

Juan Pedro Benali opened up with his thoughts on the season and mentioned that his side needed to solve a certain problem to understand how to win games.

“I think we spoke about it many times. We are a good team, we are making a very good team. We need to adjust some points and the problem require some time to understand. Now we know the way we want to play and hence need to start learning the way we win the games. 

Juan Pedro Benali also highlighted the lack of rhythm that his team experienced due to so many breaks in between the games.

“As I said just now, one of the biggest problems we had is we had no rhythm because there was a lot of gap between one game and the other. As you see, most of the games we won were when we were playing, we played twice a week. It’s easier in that case. The moment you stop 20-25 days, all the rhythm, all the hard work you do, goes down and that’s normal.”

Benali also congratulated his players for their constant efforts and exclaimed that nobody expected his team to miss the playoffs by just a point after the kind of campaign they had last season.

“But I congratulate the players. They had a great season and did a wonderful job. I think nobody in ISL, surrounding fans, could tell that we will not qualify by one point in the playoffs. Many people thought that we could draw or win in Chennai. I think it is not the game. We lost the chances of playoffs many games before. We dropped a lot of points priorly. That’s the price we should pay for putting young players, that is the price of learning, that is the price of transition, we pay, and now we are ready to win. That’s the message we have for next season. Win, win, and win,” Juan Pedro Benali asserted.

Starting again next season

When asked if the off-season would impact his team in any way, the Spaniard replied, “The gap between one season and the other is not important. Our problem is when you start to play, you cannot stop. Play two games, three games in a week, and stop 20 days. It’s worse. We prefer we can stop three months, four months. But after you want us to play every three days, we play every three days, that’s not a problem. But don’t make us stop for 25 days. 

Juan Pedro Benali also added that his side’s fitness is very good and that will result in a better rhythm. “Our fitness is great, but there is something very important. It’s not about the fitness, it’s the rhythm of games. The more you play, the better the players you get. The better rhythm of the games we see, the better for the fans and better for the National team,” Benali quipped.

Plans for playing outside Guwahati

The 55-year-old also revealed NorthEast United’s plans of playing outside Guwahati and said that the club wants to show their supporters that they are a club of a region. 

“Today we had a meeting before this morning, and the club is willing to go to all the cities of the North East to play. We’re just waiting for the different stadiums to be ready. And we’re also trying to go to play some friendly games to show everyone we are a community; the team of eight states. Although when we play in Guwahati, we need people. We need fans, we need supporters,” Juan Pedro Benali exclaimed.

Plans for the off-season

The Head coach also shared how the players will prepare themselves for the upcoming season during their holidays. “Yeah, of course, just before last week, we did tests in the center here, and thanks to Assam Sports and Ministry and Guwahati Sports. The high-performance sports center here helped us. They did the test for everyone. From tomorrow we are giving a special program to every player.”

Juan Pedro Benali mentioned that all the players will have a specifically designed training program for their holidays so that the team is ready to go for the Durand Cup. “Each player will have a unique program and his diet. To try to come in as perfect conditions as possible. They can take the first 10 or 12 days off in total. But after that, they need to start the hard work. We hope they know that. If they lose, they gain weight, it’s fine. Hence if they lose a lot, then also it’s fine. You know, they need to come in perfect shape because we want to go for the Durand Cup,” Benali added.

Positives from the season

Speaking about the positives from this season, Benali said that they have developed a team from scratch and have accumulated more points than last season. “We have more points than that of the last two seasons together. We developed a team from scratch, from minus five, to where we are now. 

NorthEast boss also claimed that he arrived in India at the right time, with the right people. “The best thing for me is not accepting other offers from other teams and coming to the Northeast. It’s true, I did the best thing to come to India. For the last three years, I had many offers to come and I think I came in the right moment, in the right place, with the right people,” Juan Pedro Benali signed off.

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