Phil Brown: I want our attackers to be our best players

The Hyderabad FC head coach also revealed that he feels the match against Chennaiyin FC was not a great example.

Following his side's defeat against Chennaiyin FC, Hyderabad FC head coach Phil Brown interacted with the press on Monday. After the game had gone goalless for nearly 90 minutes, the Marina Machans sealed their first win of the season, as Andre Schembri and Nerijus Valskis’ strikes cancelled out Matthew Kilgallon’s late equalizer to give the hosts all three points.

Phil Brown was clearly disappointed and gave a brutally honest summary of the game. “I don’t think either team really contributed to a great spectacle today. That wasn’t John’s gameplan and certainly wasn’t ours either. Perhaps the International break effected that," he stated.

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WATCH: Match Highlights: Chennaiyin FC 2-1 Hyderabad FC

"For the first 30 minutes, we couldn’t find a proper pass. We weren’t playing any kind of football. Then in the last fifteen minutes, we had some promising chances with Bobo and Robin Singh, who had the best chance of the first half,” Phil Brown added.

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“I always felt the first goal would be important, but I never felt the game would end the way it did. The extra time produced the most exciting parts of the game. I thought we deserved something out of the game and I thought we deserved some against NorthEast United in the last game as well," the Englishman quipped.

"It’s bitterly disappointing that one, we didn’t contribute to a great game of football and two, we didn’t get anything from a game of football. We need to address that as soon as possible. We need to understand that the ISL is unforgiving and make sure we are mentally and physically prepared for the next game,” he added.

Despite conceding late goals once again, Phil Brown wasn’t critical of his defenders and hailed them as their best players. The tactician also explained why he wouldn’t like his defenders being their best players and wanting his attackers to be the better ones.

“I think our best two players in the field were Matthew Kilgallon and Gurtej Singh. It’s because of the system we played as compared to what Chennaiyin played. They had pace on the wing and we had centre-halves playing wide of a third centre-half. Our centre-halves stood their ground, didn’t go backwards and gave the wing-backs license to go and play. I thought they were our best two players. But I don’t want our centre-backs to be our best players. I want our attackers to be our best players," Phil Brown explained.

“That isn't disrespecting either defender. But there is something to work with. For 90 minutes, we had a clean-sheet. For 97 minutes, we got beat 2-1. There’s a little bit of mentality aspects to work on. For 86 minutes against NorthEast we had a clean-sheet, but lost that as well. So those two games compounding into two defeats hurts us. If there’s anybody in my changing room who isn’t hurt, I don’t want them in my changing room. I want them to hurt so that we learn from it,” Phil Brown said.

Phil Brown refused to undermine Chennaiyin FC's method in winning the game and didn’t want to blame the officiating for stretching the game as long as it did.

“I would never criticize the opposition. I just believe the game wasn't a great spectacle. Whenever you’re leaving the game of football and it wasn’t a spectacle, but you’ve won, everything about it is forgotten. Unfortunately, they’ve won. They’ll now believe that they’ve played well enough to win," he said.

Hyderabad FC’s midfielders looked toothless going forward, but Phil Brown insisted his forward players must improve their performance-level to help them.

“Often when you’re playing two midfielders, as long as the right-hand knows what the left hand is doing, it should work. Rohit and Marko were too intent on the defensive side, but I want them to be more expressive on the offensive side. I want them to be creative. If Marko relies on Bobo and he relies on Marko, that’s a good partnership."

“I think we failed either on the wide because of the lack of quality in the front-three. It’s something we need to work at. I think some of our players had less than 50% possession stats. That isn’t good enough, especially for forward players. I expect them to have at least 70% possession stats. So less than that’s not good enough for me,” the Hyderabad FC head coach explained.

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Phil Brown also indicated that he wasn’t bothered by his wing-backs getting caught out of position by Chennaiyin’s clever passing. He mentioned how they’re getting better, but insisted his players must improve their chemistry going forward.

“I think if you pass the ball and keep the ball, consequently your system works and the other has to change. I have two very willing young Indian wing-backs who are learning on the job. Nikhil Poojary has lost his International place. He wants to get that back. Mohammed Yasir has never played wing-back before, so he’s learning on the job."

“They both have good potency going forward, but the communication needs to improve. I need them to produce more going forward. For me, when the Chennaiyin wingers were running at my centre-halves, I wasn’t afraid as the centre-halves were comfortable. In the 30 minutes of the first half, we looked like we didn’t know each other let alone playing with each other. So that’s something we’ll improve at," he concluded.