Exclusive: Ashley Westwood: “I never thought of winning the I-League”

Ashley Westwood – The gaffer in his element

The newly crowned I-League champions, Bengaluru FC held a press conference yesterday. Captain Sunil Chhetri, Coach Ashley Westwood, CEO Parth Jindal, COO Mustafa Ghouse and Assistant Coach Pradyum Reddy were at the conference.

Sportskeeda got Ashley Westwood to answer a few questions about winning the League, his team and Manchester United. Read on to know what he said –

Did working with Venky’s Blackburn Rovers influence your decision to join Bengaluru FC?

“No, not at all. I was an assistant coach at Blackburn, and I was under a manager there. He was the one who dealt with all the communication with the Venkys. I’ve never really spoken to them. It wasn’t really my job and really none of my business. I don’t have anything to say about the Venkys. They’ve never come across me and I’ve never really come across them.”

Are the training pitches in India really different as compared with those in England?

“Our home in Bangalore has got a ‘3g AstroTurf’ pitch, and across England there’s lots of 3g AstroTurf pitches. There are loads of occasions when English players actually train on AstroTurf pitches. They have indoor domes and at some point of time in your career you play on an AstroTurf pitch if you play in England.

“It wasn’t too dissimilar. An AstroTurf pitch is flat, it’s not bubbly and easy to play football on. So it’s been no hindrance to us at all. “

Could the loss to East Bengal be attributed to the condition of the pitch?

“Yes, we had a rough time in Calcutta with the weather. We travelled to the game and it took four hours to get there because all the roads were flooded. It was just a freak couple of days weather, so the pitch was almost under water. It was even hard to stand up and pass the ball. It was the same for both teams though. They beat us in that game, so credit to them, but that was a little bit of difference we didn’t count for.

“You need to account for all factors – different conditions, different places to play. If you get all those correct, you end up being the champions and that’s what we are. We’ve proven that we are the most consistent side, otherwise we wouldn’t have won the League.”

Was changing positions of players that wasn’t their natural position difficult?

“I had an idea about my system of play and I adapted that system to suit the system that we put in place. I looked at players’ attributes and think where they’d be best played. Some players, I felt, were better in other positions, which is what we did. We were clear and strong on our ideas since day one. We stuck to our methods, our beliefs and it’s proven to be a key to our success.”

Did BFC not having a ‘physical’ midfielder change the way the team functioned?

“Maybe in your eyes ‘physical’ means big and strong, but physically I thought our midfield was by far the fittest in the League. I disagree slightly with the physical side because we were very physical in the midfield. We’re not big boys, but you don’t have to be big to tackle the ball. We like to play with the ball on the ground, like to close people down and that’s why we played the midfielders in that position.”

Did you ever have to change tactics midway during a game?

“At the Rangdajied United away game, we were 2-0 down at half time and that was the first time we changed our system and our style of play. We had nothing to lose at two-nil. It was finished, we were beaten. And it was a case of trying something new, which we did. We got it back to 2-2 because we changed our system and our style, and we almost came out with a victory, but we ended up conceding a goal and losing 3-2.

“That was a good game. It showed that we can change and swap our system if we need to. We can change our playing style and show some adaptability.”

When did Ashley Westwood first think about winning the I-League?

“It was never. You start the first six games and you’re on top of the League because you’ve won 5 and drawn 1. There was an international friendly against India after only 4 weeks of training and we put on a really good performance even there. And that showed us that we could have a little bit of success at this football club and the rest was just snowball from there. We just constantly demanded things from the players, and luckily they’ve paid us back.”

Would you be interested in the currently vacant Manchester United manager job?

“Manchester United can’t afford me” (laughs)

Do you have anything to say to the fans?

“The fans have played as big a part as anybody in this football club. They deserve a special mention and special credit. They’ve been behind us since day one. They came to the ground against Mohun Bagan – the players were unknown, they didn’t know what to expect and thankfully we put on a good performance and played some nice attacking football that they would like to come back and see.

“We praise them, we’re thankful to them and we’ve hopefully given them something back for their overwhelming support.”