Owen Coyle: Igor Stimac was delighted with our performance

The Chennaiyin FC head coach also revealed that he feels the Marina Machans could have scored six-seven goals against ATK.

Chennaiyin FC's playoffs ambitions received a formidable boost by defeating ATK 3-1 on Sunday to move back into fifth place, one point behind fourth-placed Mumbai City FC in the ISL table. Their overseas players in Rafael Crivellaro, Andre Schembri and Nerijus Valskis all got on the score-sheet, while Roy Krishna’s solitary strike didn’t prove to be enough for the hosts. Following the game, Chennaiyin FC head coach Owen Coyle interacted in the post-match press conference.

Owen Coyle was delighted with his team’s performance and hailed their effort for turning things around under him. The Scotsman also admitted that his side are ready for the game against Mumbai and will prepare their best. “We were very outstanding today from the first to the last person. We made it difficult for ourselves at times when it should’ve been easier. We had so many chances to score goals against a very good side. We knew we had to bring our best game tonight. The first half was the best as I’ve seen of us. Ideally, I wanted a pre-season to know the players. I had to assess the squad very quickly coming in.”

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“From what I saw, we played every game to win. We had to find that attacking threat. I’ve changed the team up to make us positive when we’re very creative. We tend to be very open when we go to attack. Now we go to Mumbai with confidence. We won’t change. We won’t be playing for a draw against Mumbai. We’ll approach the game accordingly. We enjoy tonight, but from tomorrow morning we must prepare for Mumbai," Owen Coyle added.

Thoughts On Indian Players

Owen Coyle also praised his Indian players' effort, including Anirudh Thapa and felt they could do even better moving forward. “I have loved every minute of playing with the Indian players. Thapa was a joy to watch today. ATK was a difficult opposition, but my players proved their quality today. The players keep everything I ask, they keep delivering. They are a joy to work with. They tend to listen and tend to work with. The national team coach was also delighted with our performance,” he explained.

“After that draw to Bengaluru, we needed this win. We knew we could come here and win. But to do that we had to be at our very best. But we did play scintillating football. We could've scored six-seven tonight. We’re doing a lot of things well. I feel there’s more to come for us going forward. We didn’t want our season to fizzle out after a certain point. But we played well and we are confident going against Mumbai.”, he also quipped.

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The former Bolton Wanderers manager also had good words for his full-backs as well as Edwin Vanspall, all who gave very good performances today. He said, “I thought Jerry was outstanding. Not only defending, but also with the ball he was very good. The most important thing about football is the players. In Jerry and Laldinliana we had our strengths. They worked very hard to stop ATK’s flows. Jerry and Laldiinliana are just getting better all the time. It’s great for the league and for the national team.”

“The national coach(Stimac) spoke about Edwin. He played as a full-back but I recognized his threat centrally as he has quick feet. You need to have quick feet to play in the middle. His energy levels were amazing today and that’s why I took him off. I demand our players to be physically and mentally exhausted at the end and he showed that today. Long may his good form continue.”, he also added.