Antonio Habas claims Manvir Singh's best is yet to come

The tactician also felt the yellow card to Pronay Halder was undeserving.

ATK Mohun Bagan hammered Odisha FC 4-1 to move closer to the top of the Indian Super League (ISL) table on Saturday. Braces from Roy Krishna and Manvir Singh helped the Mariners clinch the win, which is by far the biggest margin ATKMB have managed in the league this season. Following the emphatic win, ATK Mohun Bagan head coach Antonio Habas spoke in the post-match press conference, speaking about the game and more.

Thoughts on the result

The Spaniard sounded happy following the dominant win and went to speak on it briefly. “I think we dominated the first 25-30 minutes, played good football but we slipped for a few minutes and the opponents held us going into half-time. Then after that, I feel in the second half, we had better chances and were able to score those goals,” he said.

On Manvir Singh

Manvir Singh put in one of his best performances in an ATKMB shirt and impressed the coach with his gameplay. “I feel now because of the injury recoveries, we have the opportunity to rotate the team to improve the first XI. Manvir, for me, is an important player for us and he was absolutely fantastic today,” Antonio Habas remarked.

“We have confidence in Manvir, absolutely confident in him. I’ve told him to improve his consistency and be more consistent in different games. He can’t be spectacular one day and not that fine on another one. That is a challenge to Manvir now. I feel we can get the best out of Manvir now,” he added.

Selection headaches going forward?

Despite strong performances from Manvir and Marcelinho, the tactician remains confident that he will have a selection headaches. “No, because I feel we have good players in attack and multiple options, which is absolutely necessary. We have Krishna, Marcelinho and Javi. We have too much continuation in games, so it’s important for us to alternate between the players,” the 63-year-old said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCPv4QgAQDw

Pronay Halder picked up a yellow card against Odisha FC, which means he’ll be absent against Bengaluru FC. Speaking about it, Habas remarked, “Today I think the yellow card was not deserved. We had played for substitutions when it happened. But, we now have McHugh who is recovering and ready for the next match.”

Thoughts on winning the league stages

The ATK Mohun Bagan head coach also made it clear that the primary objective for him is to qualify for the playoffs and not win the league stages.

“Our idea is to qualify for the playoffs. After that, we’ll think about the league. For now, the objective is to qualify for the playoffs and maybe after that we’ll think about winning the league stages,” he revealed.

Manvir Singh's comments

Man of the Match Manvir Singh was also delighted to get the win as he said, “I’m very happy to have scored two goals today and helped my team. I’m happy that we got the three points. Now we have a match on 9th, we’ll be ready for that and we’ll recover quickly.”

Roy Krishna's comments

ATK Mohun Bagan's other goalscorer of the night, Roy Krishna praised Manvir Singh’s performance and revealed what he told him on the pitch.

“Just keep working hard. I think in training he has a very good attitude. Today, the credit goes to him. I’ve told him to make decisions when got the ball. Today, he made the right decisions and got his goals. I’m happy for him today,” he asserted.

The Kolkata giants have scored seven goals in their last two games and with it, talks of a goal drought have disappeared. Krishna was asked about what brought this change when he answered, “I don’t think anything changed. It’s just about the decision making on the ball. I think at the start of the season and tried to play long-balls. But, I feel now we’ve become more confident of the ball and Habas has been telling us to do that."

"I think you need to be patient when you have the ball and now it’s working for us. We know our strengths,” the Fijian concluded.

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