Phil Brown: In the end, it became men against boys

The Hyderabad FC boss feels the absence of key players is affecting his side in the league.

Following Hyderabad FC's defeat against Jamshedpur FC on Tuesday night, head coach Phil Brown shared his thoughts on the game in the post-match press conference.

The Englishman was probed about the team’s poor passing and positioning in general throughout the course of the game, to which he replied, “I think it has got a lot to do with a lot of my big players being in the stands, not available to me and that hurts, that hurts every coach. I have a lot of Indian players who do everything that is asked of them. They run through brick walls."

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“But, when you are short of that bit of quality, that’s what hurts the most. Then we are not able to produce that kind of pass, that kind of shot. So basically, I am bemoaning the fact that I have got too many big players in the stands," Phil Brown stressed.

“Every team that is playing against us has got five foreign players available to them. We have three and that’s hurting us big time. As I have said, the intent is there, the desire to win the game is there and I certainly think that the work-rate is there. But, we didn’t have that quality on the pitch,” he asserted.

On Missing Creative Players

Phil Brown further shed light on the proceedings and how he viewed them, “As you see, so many times we play against teams who have that creative ability. The players Jamshedpur had today were good players and they hurt us when they had the ball. I haven’t actually got that talent."

“So, when Sahil Panwar goes down after half-time, and it was a contact injury and not a fatigue one, I ideally need to have someone as good as or better than Sahil to bring him on the pitch as a substitute. I haven’t gotten that strength and depth at the moment, you know," the 60-year-old explaiined.

“After a couple of games we have the international break. So, come the fifth game, I am hoping that all my squad could be fit and then ideally, we could give a good account of ourselves. At the moment, we are trying very hard to compete and I think we did in the first half, as we had a good foothold over the game even at 1-0 down," Brown went on to say.

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“Then we come to the half-time team-talk with 1-1 and it was a lot easier. The talk was easier for a number of reasons, as the players now had the confidence to go out and maybe win the second half. I think it was a strong performance by Jamshedpur and in the end, it became men against boys," Phil Brown quipped.

“You know, the senior players aren’t available to me. I looked at the bench and the average age of the players there was about 20. The lack of choice as a coach hurts you.”

Hyderabad FC face Kerala Blasters at home in their next match on November 2.