Half of our players were not physically ready for the season-Zico

The Brazilian knows his team need to start winning...

FC Goa’s Brazillian manager Zico talked to the press ahead of his team’s do-or-die game at FC Pune City. Goa have been the big strugglers of the league this season, losing 5 of their first 7 games. When questioned on his team’s poor form, the Brazillian legend replied, “First of all, we started building our team very late, much after the other teams did and at least half of our players were not physically well as they did not play for a long time and had injuries but despite this, I think we are doing our best. When the other teams were already prepared with their teams, we were still in trial. We had to sign our players in the last minute, and go to the market. That’s why a lot of our players were not fit.” He continued, “We haven’t been getting dominated, the results aren’t coming but we are fighting and we are doing our best. We have to take our time to adapt but the results aren’t coming. Any game we lost, if other decisions had been taken, it would have been a different result. We are here, we are fighting, let’s go!” Despite having the third highest amount of shots on target in the league this season, the Gaurs have only scored 4 goals, the lowest in the league. “I think our players are suffering from a bit of anxiety. They have the pressure to score and look for the result, so when it comes to finishing, they have sometimes been reckless and not had the patience or the cold blood you need to have in front of goal. Of course the goalkeeping standard is much higher than the other seasons, but it’s a little bit of both,” Zico said, commenting on his team’s inefficiency upfront . In contrast, Goa had reached the Final last year and their strike force this season has definitely been a depleted one. “Last year we had about 5-7 strikers in the team. So the motivation to play and get in the side was much higher. This year we have lost some of those players.” A fact that might play in the back of Zico’s head, is that he’s never been able to beat Antonio Habas so far. But the 63-year-old stood firm, saying, “We never keep thinking about the past. Until this season, we had never lost to Delhi Dynamos or NorthEast.” The Goa manager ended the conference on a hopeful note. “We need to start playing again. We need to go out there and win the game.” Photo © ISL Media