Manoj Mohammad has enough quality to play in ISL, says Manolo Marquez

The Nizams managed their first win of the new season by beating the Highlanders.

Hyderabad FC recorded an impressive 3-0 win over NorthEast United at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Thursday. Goals from Bartholomew Ogbeche, Halicharan Narzary and Borja Herrera were enough to secure three points for the Nizams away from home. Manolo Marquez and his men are currently sitting on top of the league table with four points from two matches.

It was a decent performance by the reigning ISL winners. Scoring three past a hapless NEUFC team and also keeping a clean sheet made the HFC fans very happy. The manager was content with the overall performance of his team and also praised Manoj Mohammad.

Here is what Manolo Marquez had to say during the media interaction post the comfortable win over NorthEast United.

Deserved the win

The Spaniard tactician was happy with the performance and said that his team deserved the three points. He started, “It is very difficult to say it was an easy game even if you are on the bench. You are always worried, even in the last moment with (the ball hitting) the crossbar. You want to keep the clean sheet for the game. I think that we deserved to win the game. I don’t know if 3-0 is correct or not. If we speak about the game, we deserved the win.”

Also Read:

• NorthEast United vs Hyderabad FC Match Report
• Player Ratings: NorthEast United vs Hyderabad FC

Happy with the overall performance?

Expectedly, Manolo Marquez is trying not to encourage comparisons between HFC’s last season’s performance with the current. In this regard, he said, “I don’t compare because if we compare, we will always lose. We compare with last season but it is true that last season we scored a lot of goals even when the opponent was playing a lot better.”

“Today, it is true that we created a lot of chances and it is true that NorthEast had some chances like the last and one more, clear header of (Matt) Derbyshire. But, I am happy with the performance in defence and in the attack,” he continued while praising the team’s performance.

Praise for Manoj Mohammad

The boss also reserved praise for left-back Manoj Mohammad. The 23-year-old has been part of the line-up for both the games due to Akash Mishra's injury. Undoubtedly, he was solid again in the full-back role this evening.

While praising the defender, Manolo Marquez said, “We know that in this position Akash Mishra is the left-back in the national team. But, this is the reason you have a squad of 25-26-27 because in some moments, when the players are injured like in this case, Akash when he came back from the national team, we signed this player and Manoj showed in the last game against Mumbai and today that he has enough level to play in the ISL.”