Full credit to the players, says Ivan Vukomanovic after win

The 44-year-old also revealed that he is happy with Sahal's performances.

Kerala Blasters head coach Ivan Vukomanovic was understandably pleased, after his team beat table-toppers and defending champions Mumbai City in an Indian Super League (ISL) 2021-22 clash on Sunday. The Yellow Army struck thrice without a reply from the Islanders. Sahal Abdul Samad, Alvaro Vazquez and Jorge Pereyra Diaz were the goalscorers for KBFC, as their resultant win propelled them to fifth place on the points table.

After the match, Vukomanovic addressed the media in the post-match press conference. Here are the excerpts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhzua1T-sOM

Keeping clean-sheet against table-toppers

When asked how it feels to not let the Islanders score at all - the first such instance for them this season - Ivan Vukomanovic said, "First of all it's down to the huge amount of work these boys have been doing. It's also down to a change in mindset, where the players are committing everything to get a win, being strong and not conceding goals."

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"These are the details that are very important in a football match. It's been four months since we are working on certain things, playing in different styles. We want to develop different styles of play depending on our opponent. I think tonight the boys showed great skill and motivation to face a champion and a team that is now sitting at the top of the table.

"That said, we came out tonight with motivation. We wanted to press high, we wanted to neutralist their key players, key points and allow some other players of Mumbai City FC to build-up from behind. These are the things that you prepare during the week on the training ground and with the help of video analysis. I'm happy that the boys understood the gameplan and they showed it on the pitch. I feel so proud of them," he further added.

Not scoring more after Fall's sending-off

Kerala Blasters scored twice from open play, before netting their third and final goal from a penalty. The penalty was given after Mourtada Fall fouled Jorge Diaz. The foul also resulted in Fall getting red-carded.

There was plenty of time left for the Yellow Army to add more to their, but they did not succeed. However, Ivan Vukomanovic did not think that it was a problem.

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"When you have a mindset from the past that you don't believe certain things will happen then you find it hard sometimes to kill the game. In that moment, you must be patient and calm in decision-making. In the second half, I was not happy with that part of the game because we should have been calmer on the ball, more patient and more decisive with the last pass. Probably with all these things we could have scored even more goals. But, in the end, we should be very happy with this victory, especially for the fans," he explained.

Sahal Abdul Samad's performance

"Sahal has been working well for a while. I'm very happy with him. He spent a lot of time with the national team and missed a big part of our pre-season. But, now he is getting back in shape. We are trying to add certain aspects to his game when he is on the pitch. He is a great player with great potential. He can become an even better player because he has a big margin for improvement," the 44-year-old said, when asked about the midfielder's display against the Islanders.

"We want to help him to score even more goals this season in the ISL. I am happy with him and also a lot of other players who have improved a lot since we started our work."

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Moving up the points table

As mentioned in the beginning, Kerala Blasters are currently at fifth place, with nine points in six matches.

When asked about this, Ivan Vukomanovic said, "I have to be honest and think that I'm sorry for our two lost points at Fatorda against NorthEast United and maybe also in our last game against SC East Bengal, where we had two cancelled goals. We are missing those points. But, our objective this season is to prepare game-by-game and to go on the pitch with a plan to neutralize their strong points and use the opponents' weaknesses. With this aspect, we want to improve as a team this season and try to be competitive and try to be unbeatable.

"If you don't concede goals and if you have clean-sheets, it gives you more and more confidence. We now have two games in the next couple of days. We have the rhythm with us, so we will prepare and try to become even better," he concluded.

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