Antonio Iriondo: Playing with Farukh and Aniket’s speed didn't work well

The Jamshedpur FC head coach also revealed that he feels playing young players is important for the future of the team.

Jamshedpur FC suffered a heartbreak on Thursday night, suffering a 1-2 loss to Mumbai City FC at the Mumbai Football Arena. The Men of Steel had gone ahead through Noe Acosta’s early strike, but the hosts bit back in the second half with Bidyananda Singh’s added-time winner giving the Islanders a big edge in the playoffs race. Following the defeat, Jamshedpur FC head coach Antonio Iriondo interacted in the post-match press conference.

Antonio Iriondo admitted that his game-plan didn’t work perfectly, with the substitutions of Aniket Jadhav and Farukh Choudhary especially hindering their progress. “The plan was to play through the wings with Farukh and Aniket’s speed. In the end, it didn’t work that well. We had to substitute both of them as they became very tired towards the end. So that didn’t help us either,” he explained.

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“The match changed after the substitutions. We tried to keep our attacking through the sides and control the game better after that. Before the substitutions we had more chances, better ball possession and forced great saves off the goalkeeper as well," Antonio Iriondo further added.

There were doubts on whether Pratik Choudhary had handled the ball leading up to the winner, but the Spaniard didn’t want to blame the officials for the defeat. He said, “We don’t know about that. Referees can make mistakes and it was a mistake. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

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Despite an injury-struck season, Antonio Iriondo remains proud of how his youngsters have impressed under the pressure and exclaimed it’ll improve them going forward. “After all the injuries we had to the foreigners, we had to play younger Indian players in the field. They have had a lot of minutes to play which is something that is important for the future of the team,” he explained.

“Perhaps they didn’t play in the circumstances they would’ve wanted to. But the positive part of the injury situation is that we’ve given confidence to those players who will be a big part of the squad next season,” he added.

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Antonio Iriondo hailed praises on young Aniket Jadhav, who displayed a bright performance on Thursday night and insisted that it’s important the younger players get more chances to shine at Jamshedpur FC. "He’s improving a lot. The boy of his age playing in these scenarios against the kind of opponents players is good for his development. Maybe he’s not as good as he could’ve been because of the injuries to the squad. But those have helped him get more minutes on the pitch,” Antonio Iriondo quipped.

“Not only for him, but (Sandeep) Mandi, 17 years old, also played 90 minutes. Amarjit (Kiyam), 18, getting some minutes and Narender (Gahlot) as well. It’s very important for the club that these players play because they’re going to get better moving forward and the experience of playing against great players is going to help them,” he concluded.