ISL 2017/18: How a change in position for Marcelinho helped FC Pune City beat Jamshedpur FC
Four minutes. That's all it took for FC Pune City to climb to the summit of the Indian Super League and beating Jamshedpur FC 2-1 at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium, Pune. The home side mounted a stunning comeback to score two goals in four minutes courtesy of Gurtej Singh and Emiliano Alfaro. For Jamshedpur, Wellington Priori gave the visitors a deserving lead in the 29th minute.
It was a hard fought game with both sides playing to win and committing players forward. Steve Coppell, Jamshedpur's head coach was pleased with the performance levels shown by his players and claimed that his side deserved something out of this game.
"I would have been happy to go back home with 1 point at least. Pune's first goal was really a random one, a cross smashed into the box and luckily falling to their player in the box. In the first half, we managed Marcelinho's threat by crowding him in the middle. But when he went wide in the second half, he caused us a lot of problems," admitted Coppell.
The change in position for the Brazilian talisman was revealed by Ranko Popovic as a decision taken at the halftime break. The Stallions' man in charge was full of praise for Jamshedpur FC but revealed that he had faith in his side to mount a comeback.
Popovic reflected on the game, "Jamshedpur were fantastic in the first half. They were organized and aggressive, just as I had expected. But the game was very open which led to a number of chances for us in the second half and a change in position for Marcelinho and two substitutions worked in our favour," Pune brought on Sarthak Golui and Marko Stankovic from the start of the second half.
Both the managers also raised concerns about two of the biggest issues that have caused a lot of discussion so far in the Indian Super League - fixture congestion and refereeing standards. Jamshedpur FC are currently on their toughest run of games, travel-wise, with the newcomers facing a dreaded run of 4 games in 11 days with this being the second out of it.
On this issue, Coppell said, "This season is spread over four months and is the longest ever in the competition. Why is there such a congestion for every team in the league? Surely there's a lesson to be learnt here. Football in this league should be about the standards on the field and not on the endurance of the players."
Meanwhile, Ranko Popovic was again livid with the kind of tackles that flew in the game that went by. He said, "Some of the challenges on Alfaro and Marcelinho were unbelievable. These are the sort of players that people enjoy to watch. We have to protect them. The league needs players of this quality and we simply have to protect them better."
These two issues have pertained with the ISL since it's inception and it was another day in the league where it was addressed in front of the media by the concerned managers.