XtraTime Web Desk- After two consecutive defeats to begin their inaugural Indian Super League season, SC East Bengal is no doubt under a lot of pressure. Coach Robbie Fowler already created a controversy regarding his Indian players just after 2 matches. With many injuries within the squad, can SC East Bengal turn things around when they face NorthEast United next? Only time will tell.
SC East Bengal didn’t get enough time to prepare themselves. Robbie Fowler agreed and said, “Whenever you’re a team, it’s important to gel. You got your methods, you got your philosophy, you got your ideas. Look, all teams have gone through isolation, all teams may have struggled in terms of training but we probably struggled more than most because of the lateness of getting together as a team. The lateness of getting the squad together and the isolation as well. That obviously played a part. Also, we traveled a long way each day to training and look we want to get lots and lots of hours on the training pitch but when we got to travel so much to get into games then we got to look after our players as well. The players welfare is massively important. The players mentality is huge specially in the modern game. So, we need to look after them. So, we really can’t do what we want to in terms of preparation and get as much hours on training pitch. Saying that, when we do practice, the lads have been fantastic. They have been really really good. The environment that we have created has been good. The lads enjoy the training session. We are not looking for excuses here, we are giving reasons why we don’t have the results. It’s certainly not a excuse, we are not blaming anyone. It’s not a blame game. It’s all about what we can do as a team. We will get it right, we know that”.
SC East Bengal are suffering up front. A lack of foreign striker costing SC East Bengal every match. Robbie Fowler confirmed that indeed they are looking guy few players. “I think we got to be sensible. We have an idea of who we can and can’t bring in. Look, we have to be realistic. Players that got to come here and we tell players to come over in, they’ll have to be in quarantine for 2 weeks before doing anything. It’s a tough ask. We have got few phonecalls out. We have few persons who we can’t bring in. It’s just not a strikers. It’s a lots and lots of things that we can’t disclose. We are here as a team and try to be the very best we can and if it needs someone to bring in who’s right for the club, of course we gotta be interested”.
Fowler though said that it’s not hurting his team. “Look, we haven’t scored, we know that. We are playing okay as a team and the scoreline suggest that we have been battered in both games but we have been in the games. We are not million miles away from where we want to be and look just because you bring a foreign striker, doesn’t mean you’re going to win games. Football is football. There’s rules in this country that we need to follow. We can bring seven foreigners in but we can’t play seven foreigners. We maybe bring a foreign striker, maybe a number 9 and he may not score. My job as a manager is to try and establish. If we need a number 9, of course we will try to bring”.
Two key players of SC East Bengal, Aaron Amadi Holloway and Danny Fox is currently injured. Coach Fowler gave an update on them. “Aaron shouldn’t be too far away. Obviously with Danny, we will wait for scan result to come through. Probably will be fine with the scan result. They are big players. His injury in the 2nd match disrupted the way we want to play. Losing him in the first couple of minutes damned the way we wanted to play. So, they are big players. But look, it’ll be an opportunity for others to showcase of what they got”.
Fowlers comment on Indian players not being coached before created quite a havoc on social media. He justified by saying, “Look, my comments were directly on my team where we want to play a certain way. My philosophy as coach is to play the best of my knowledge and to the best of my ability. We have an identity, we have a philosophy and my players haven’t been coached like that before. We are trying to implement our ways to try to get the best out of what we got and it means lots of hours on the training pitch. Trying to get what fundamentally is right for us as a team. I understand why people took the wrong context and look it’s not ideal and I don’t wanna disrespect anyone. I’ll never ever do that. I think there’s lots and lots of good players in India. Some are not great by all means. There are very very good players, there are technically good players but players sometimes needs better understanding of the game and that’s not me being derogatory, that’s me being realistic”.
After two losses, will there be few changes in the SC East Bengal sqaud? Liverpool legend cleared. “Yes there will be few changes as few players are injured and few players are not available and in terms of our philosophy, we have something that we believe in. We have a way of playing and we will continue to play that way. We will respect the opponent, we will respect the opposition but we have our way of playing and we will play that way. So, sometimes it’s also about what we can do. We need to stop individual mistakes and silly mistakes and that’s why we need to concentrate a little bit more. I know it’s a tough game. They are unbeaten so far and it’s a challenge for us. We have played against two of the best teams in the country and we haven’t outclassed and we have lost the game but we showed glimpses of what we can do and we will continue to show glimpses”.
Coach Robbie Fowler was then questioned whether his team is ready for a comeback after a poor start or not, to which he said, “well, I disagree. Everything is given by results here in this country. We know that results are everything. In terms of starts, we haven’t have greatest of starts in terms of results but we are not actually playing that bad. I think you have to sit and analyze our performances. It’s not all bad, we are putting in good performances. We probably need to be a little bit more consistent and concentration level needs to be a little bit longer. We are working hard”.