Jorge Costa reveals dissatisfaction, Steve Coppell praises ATK players

The tacticians had a set of polar opposite views of the game.

Mumbai City and ATK played out the second goalless draw of this season at the Mumbai Football Arena on Saturday night. With a low energy match being played, neither of the parties involved seemed to have enjoyed the game.

Jorge Costa was outrightly disappointed after the game as he said, "In my opinion, it's a fair result, without clear chances or opportunities to start. We had Rafa (Rafael Bastos) having a close chance, that chance was there."

"We fight a lot, ATK fight a lot. Many times we did not have the quality to fight," Costa added.

 

 

 

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Watch: Mumbai City FC 0-0 ATK highlights

Going on to the point that the team's gameplay was affected by the international break, Jorge continued, "This is not what we wanted before the game. This break was not good for us. We came from three consecutive victories and this week was the worst week we had in training and when you have a break it is difficult to recover the focus."

Then on the topic of whether they would be signing any more players to fortify any positions Costa replied, "We will see, we will see. It's not easy in December to find the players and if it is possible we will look to it. We are working to see what we can do to improve our team.

"I am happy with the players, but not like this. We need to improve our game," he signed off.

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Steve Coppell came in looking quite content and satisfied and was asked how he would evaluate the game. He answered calmly stating, "Slightly disappointed I think, yes. But, it was too close to call. I don't think Mumbai created a lot of things for themselves, but we created a few problems for ourselves certainly in the second half.

Speaking about the opportunities of his own team, "We were always trying to get our noses in front. A lot of free-kicks. Everton (Santos) was fouled so many times and they disrupted our attacks," he said,

Talking about Mumbai City he said, "Coming here, they had a three-match winning streak and they are difficult to play against."

The Englishman also spoke about his players who he felt performed exceptionally. "Ricky had a terrific game and Everton upfront and he is playing midfield for me, left midfield, right midfield and today number nine!" he opined.

"Arnold (Issoko) is a big threat and in what they do, Ricky played a wonderful game. He was able to contain him and that helped us a lot," Coppell added.

The Englishman elaborated on John Jhonson and how he fits into his plans saying, "He's given himself a new challenge. He could have stayed at Bengaluru, but he has perhaps accepted more responsibility at ATK (Andre) Bikey has come back and he has formed a great partnership with them."

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When asked if he would choose philosophy over points, Coppell vehemently answered, "Everyone wants to win and three points make a huge difference in this league. Bengaluru are a great side and picking up points consistently, Goa is a good side, Mumbai are very disciplined."

"But at the end of the day, we think about winning the next game. Its all about winning," he concluded.