Antonio Habas opines on introduction of VAR in ISL, here's what he said

The ATKMB head coach also spoke in detail about what to expect from Bengaluru FC on Thursday.

ATK Mohun Bagan will be hoping to end their ongoing slump in the Indian Super League (ISL) when they face the struggling Bengaluru FC on Thursday. Ahead of the clash, ATKMB head coach Antonio Lopez Habas spoke to the media in the pre-match press conference:

Thoughts on Bengaluru FC's struggles & strengths

Interestingly for the Mariners, they face a Bengaluru FC side who are winless in their last five matches – one which even triumphs over ATKMB’s three-match winless streak. When asked about whether this is good for his team, Antonio Habas said, “No match is easy in this edition of the ISL. All the matches have 30-40 minutes of quality and after that you can score one goal.

“No match is easy, you can’t control games easily and score 3-4 goals more than the opponent. We have to find the stability and the balance. My proposal is to be okay with winning and losing. That’s my opinion. I don’t understand the big difference between that. That’s my job at ATKMB now.”

Speaking about BFC’s strengths, Habas quippe, “I think that Bengaluru have a good history, a good team and we have to respect them. I don’t know on the pitch what is the possibilities. Every coach wants to win the match and plans games accordingly. After that, the players on the pitch must find the solution.”

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On Roy Krishna & Sunil Chhetri's similar stories

The ATKMB tactician praised Roy Krishna for his important role in his team in the past. When asked about the striker’s recent dip in form, he said, “For me he’s still one of the best players in the ISL. Sometimes, the striker doesn’t have the possibility to score goals. I have the same confidence in him from the first day.”

Regarding Bengaluru FC’s star striker Sunil Chhetri, who has been in poor form so far this season, Habas said, “We have the possibilities to play the same against Bengaluru FC as every other team. Chhetri is a legend in Indian football and a big example for the youngsters. I absolutely respect the trajectory of his career.

“My idea about Sunil is that I don’t think a team should depend completely on one player. Football is a collective sport and I don’t think for one player – Roy or Chhetri – having one or two bad days are the reason why the team isn’t winning. That’s not the idea in football.”

ATKMB's defensive issues & ability to finish on top

ATK Mohun Bagan have conceded 10 goals this season so far, only keeping one clean-sheet. Speaking about his plans to stop conceding goals, Habas explained, “The plan is to defend better. But, it’s not just only defending with the ball. Sometimes we can lose the ball and we’ll need to recover it immediately. If we have the ball more than the opponent, maybe they won’t have an option to score.”

Antonio Habas remains surprisingly confident of his side’s ability to finish the league stages at the top of the table, even after dropping so many points already. He said, “There are many points in play. We had two matches in a week, but have the same possibility to recover the situation. I’ve experienced a lot of things here. I remember Chennaiyin in the 2019/20 seaosn, they lost 7-8 matches, After that they finished on second position and played in the final!

"The idea has to be improving and recovering strongly. It’s not a catastrophic situation when you lose two matches or a fantastic situation when you win two. Football is not like this for me. It’s a long career. Maybe, if you lose three matches, you can bounce back and win the next three,” he added.

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Target in January & thoughts on VAR implementation in ISL

When asked about how many points he wants ATKMB to have at the end of the first ISL phase in January, Habas said, “I want us to be in the best position possible in the standings. Our idea is to be in the top four by that phase and after that to have the option to fight in the title race.”

Finally, Habas was asked whether he believes the ISL should introduce VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee) at the earliest. He answered, “The first idea has to be to capacitate the referees for these situations. If we were to have three bad referees in the VAR room, there could be repeated mistakes afterward. I believe that nowadays the younger referees is good for the competition.

“I don’t understand, for example, the foreign referee that officiated the ATKMB-Mumbai City final last season was in the league now. What happened with him? He went missing. You have the confidence to appoint a referee for an ISL final and then he goes missing. So, what’s happening? Maybe somebody has to explain that to me,” he signed off.

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