Stuart Baxter: It is difficult to plan without Marcelinho

The Englishman spoke on the back of his side's third consecutive defeat of the season.

Odisha FC lost their fourth match of the ongoing Indian Super League 2020-21 game. FC Goa turned out to be the victors thanks to a solitary goal from Igor Angulo, as Stuart Baxter and Co languish at the 10th place in table.

Adding to their troubles, the Juggernauts went without a goal for the third game in a row. Their head coach interacted with the media in the post-match press conference and spoke in reference to the loss against the Gaurs. 

On his half-time team talk

Odisha FC yet again conceded the opening goal right before the first-half whistle. When enquired about his half-time team talk, Stuart Baxter responded by saying that, “To concede when we did was a low-blow. We were quite good in closing down the spaces and I think we were frustrating them, but with our quality in possession, we lost the ball far too many times and gave them possession. We spoke about that and when we came out, we pushed on and we had a couple of decent situations.” 

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https://youtu.be/uRK73sChj2c

Back-to-back tough fixtures

The tactician also talked about the current challenges and the prospect of facing two undefeated teams in the coming fixtures. He said, “I think everything is a tall order for us at the moment. It's been very tough on us because we have a very young team. I think the players have approached it really really well.”

“They thought going into this one that we had a real chance. The game plan was never strongly executed. So, we have to come with a massive response in the next two games because anything less will not turn the corner for us,” he further went on to add. 

Lack of creativity in absence of Marcelinho

Marcelinho was on the bench tonight and OFC’s midfield lacked any flair. Speaking in this context, Stuart Baxter said, “We didn’t pass the ball well tonight and didn't have enough possession of the ball for someone to be creative. I think if we can get a hold of the ball better, open the field a little better, then you’ll see those players also have creativity. But, Marcelinho is a creative player on the field, if he is not there, you’ll always miss him.”

The Brazilian playmaker came on to the pitch in the 87th minute and describing his decision, the coach said, “I didn’t think Marcelinho would be the solution to the many problems that we were facing. I didn’t want to open the flanks even more so didn’t want to take away one of the front players because Diego Mauricio was the one that was looking like he may give us a spark. I couldn’t take one of the centre-backs because that’s where we were getting hurt.”

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Goal drought and how to overcome it

For the third consecutive time, the Juggernauts went goalless. Speaking on how this can be fixed, the tactician said that, “The front players are not the only ones to blame. Our possession is to be blamed, our deliveries into the box are to blame, our timing of movement is to blame and our low-block not being good on transition is to blame. There’s a few things that we have to upgrade before we can start scoring goals.”

Related: Igor Angulo strikes again as FC Goa edge Odisha FC

On Arshdeep’s performance

In an outstanding performance, Odisha’s custodian Arshdeep Singh saved a total of 10 shots. Praising his performance, Stuart Baxter gave his input by saying that, “Arshdeep was very good tonight. He made a few good saves that I expect him to make because he’s a good goalkeeper. His performance was good, his kicking was quite good, and I think that’s a very solid performance from him.”

Planning a game without Marcelinho

Lastly, Stuart Baxter talked about having to plan without the availability of Marcelinho due to his ongoing injury issues. He said that, “It’s difficult but not impossible, because Marcelinho on paper is one of those players that will give us a bit of a spark. If his fitness is not 100%, and his injury is giving him trouble then it does make it difficult to plan and cater to him.”

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