Stuart Baxter: Kamaljit Singh had a very bad concussion

The Englishman reacted after his side's disappointing loss against Mumbai City FC.

Odisha FC lost their third game out of the first four fixtures in the ongoing Indian Super League 2020-21 season. Two goals from Mumbai City FC’s Bartholomew Ogbeche and Rowllin Borges were enough to separate the two sides on the night. Stuart Baxter, head coach of the Juggernauts, expressed his feelings after the game in the post-match interaction with the media.

He was asked if there was a mismatch between the two teams in terms of experience and quality to which he replied, “Mismatch in terms of experience, yes. I thought the first 15-20 minutes, it was the same equation but a better result. But after the penalty, it became apparent that there was a mismatch.”

“When we went to 3-5-2, pressed high, took a chance at the back, we had three or four chances. We needed to score one of them to get some pressure on Mumbai because when there is 2-0, they played without pressure,” he further added. 

Upon being asked about his half-time team talk when they went into the dressing room down by two goals, Stuart Baxter said, “Well we'd gone 2-0 down and we’d gotten very flat. What chances we had, we didn’t take, what transitions, what set plays we had, we didn’t take. We needed everybody to make that improvement in terms of their quality. We needed an all round improvement.”

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Odisha FC’s custodian, Kamaljit Singh was substituted early in the game due to a head injury. Giving an update on his goalkeeper, Stuart Baxter informed that, “Kamaljit had a very bad concussion. He answered a couple of questions that the doctors gave him, but he was clearly affected by (the concussion), he didn’t really know where he was. We’ll take care of him and all the protocols of the concussion will be followed.” 

The 67-year-old also shared an overview of his team’s performance against MCFC. He said, “I thought we opened well, but we lost our momentum, we lost our belief. And then the match got stretched out and they thrived. Throughout the game, the quality was not what it should be.”

The tactician concluded his press interaction by talking about the fact that OFC have yet to win a game this season and if that will play on their minds. He said that, “It'll keep playing in my mind until my next training session.”

“First up, we need to replenish our energy reserves. We can’t keep giving people a penalty and then think we can come back because we get on the back foot and our opponents get on the front foot. We have got to make sure that we can turn that around and I am sure the players can,” Stuart Baxter further went on to add.