Interview with Cesar Farias: "Back to back games don't let you recover"

(Image courtesy ISL)

To state that the highlanders have been patchy in the second season of Hero ISL would be apt. Not only have they struggled in listing wins, the team managed by Cesar Farias have seemed frail overall. Speaking ahead of their away game against Delhi Dynamos, the Venezuelan gaffer elaborated on what has gone wrong for his side and how they intend to strategise for tomorrow’s game.

Excerpts:  

How do you overturn the slump in form, especially against a team in form at the moment?

This league has been very even between teams so far and every game has had a different tale to narrate. When you lose games, you don’t see the positives but we know there are some. Even in the last game, we had two accidental handballs- that doesn’t happen too often. The long travels and back to back games doesn’t give you much time. You just keep going.

The league is very even and tight.

What will be your strategy against Delhi?

We keep basing the game in the idea of controlling the ball, controlling the game just like we did in the two games we won. Keeping the clean sheets with zonal defending and staying very compact. It has worked for us in the past. We have to sharpen the effectiveness and shots on target, but we keep the same ideas as before. 

What in your opinion has worked for them so far?

They’re a good team and they have played to their potential; simple as that. 

Any injury concerns for you tomorrow?

Just Robin. In the last game, he felt a pain in his hamstring but he is better now, almost ready to go. An eye infection Boithang is going through now.

In the last season, there were more fans for NorthEast in JLN here. Even tomorrow, there could be a lot of fans from NE. Your message to the fans?

It makes us very happy to see the support of our people. We hope to give them a good game and a good result.