Chennai, Feb 6 Chennaiyin FC head coach Owen Coyle acknowledged the challenges his team has faced during the current season but rallied around to set sights on a strong finish, starting with their Indian Super League 2024-25 match against East Bengal FC in Kolkata on Saturday.
The Marina Machans’ earlier meeting with the Red and Gold Brigade resulted in a win for the latter. However, with the head-to-head evenly tied at two wins each, there is all to play for at the Salt Lake Stadium.
“The boys are keen to get playing again. We know how hard they worked during the Kerala (Blasters) game. We know now, which we knew at the time, too, that it was never a red card (for Wilmar Jordan Gil). It’s happened, it’s not the first time. But, the bottom line is we, as a group, need to start winning games.
"We need to start doing better. If we don’t, we leave ourselves open to criticism, and that’s only fair. That’s the nature of football. The only people who can change that is us,” Coyle told the media at the press conference in Chennai on Thursday.
“We have players good enough to go and win games, and that’s what we need to start doing. You don’t ever like losing a rivalry game, but we have to get up and running again, look to finish strongly, and that starts at East Bengal,” he added.
Joining Coyle was goalkeeper Mohammad Nawaz, who underlined that the team is together and is looking forward to the matches ahead.
“Whatever happened, it’s already done. We have a few matches left, so what we can do is go match by match and give our best. That’s in our hands. We have played well, but we have gotten punished for even one mistake across the 90 minutes.
"We are lacking a little bit of luck. As a team, we are together. We will give our best (against East Bengal) and we’re looking forward to it.”
Coyle augmented Nawaz’s words by reiterating that the team’s focus remains as strong as ever, especially with a Super Cup and AFC spots still to play for.
“It’s really important, as Nawaz said, that we start well against East Bengal, we look to get that run going to end the season. There’s a Super Cup to play for, with an AFC spot at stake. Nobody has given anything up yet," he said.
Moreover, Coyle ruled out Laldinliana Renthlei for the East Bengal trip, with the fullback requiring surgery for a shoulder problem, but confirmed that Vignesh Dakshinamurthy was back in training and could be available.
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