Have to rotate all eight foreigners to perform well, feels Antonio Habas

The ATK Mohun Bagan head coach also revealed that he felt the referee should have deemed the challenge on Michael Soosairaj a foul.

A cagey affair in the opening game of the Indian Super League on Friday night saw ATK Mohun Bagan clinching the win over Kerala Blasters, through a second half goal by Roy Krishna. Although, the southerners enjoyed majority of the possession, it was the Mariners who utilized their chances to bag three points, much to the credit of head coach Antonio Habas.

"Kerala (Blasters) made a good game, but we utilized our chances and bagged the full points," Antonio Habas claimed in the post-match press conference.

ATK Mohun Bagan's Michael Soosairaj suffered an injury early into the game and was substituted in the first half. Speaking about the incident, Antonio Habas said he felt that the referee should have awarded a foul for the challenge on him.

"Initially it was not a good feeling, I felt the referee should have given a fowl, but no problem. We have to cope up with these situations and we recovered with the substitution," he quipped.

Fijian ace striker Roy Krishna scored the only goal of the game few minutes after the hour mark. However, he was later substituted by the ATK Mohun Bagan boss.

"We can't risk a single player to play for 90 minutes in this humidity and high intense match, as we will need players like Krishna all through the season. That's why we planned to play Williams in place of either Edu or Roy and Williams played perform his role well. We have to rotate all eight foreigners to perform well all through the season," he explained.

"The team showed fantastic behavior and the players maintained the shape well. We got the win and now all focus on the East Bengal match," Antonio Habas added.

ATK Mohun Bagan lacked significantly in their tactics in the first half, as they struggled to keep the ball and create chances. When quizzed about it, the Spaniard answered, "We have to correct things in the midfield. The communication between the strikers and the midfield needs to be better, as we want to press the opponent more and high."

"We will work on it Sunday onwards, as we train every day," he added before signing off.

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