ISL 2019-20: Kerala Blasters assistant coach Ishfaq Ahmed feels lack of concentration has been costing them points
Kerala Blasters yet again lost points after a dominating outing as they conceded in the stoppage time to finish the FC Goa encounter 2-2. Sergio Cidoncha opened the scoring for the hosts in the very first minute of the game. Goa responded in the 41st minute through Mourtada Fall's header, going past TP Rehenesh. Raphael Messi's goal in the second half was answered by the visitors through a late dramatic finish from Lenny Rodrigues.
Kerala Blasters have now conceded five of their seven goals of the season, in the latter half. When asked about the conceding late, assistant coach Ishfaq Ahmed admitted it to be lack of concentration. However, he backed himself from putting the blame on the players.
"There are many reasons usually when you concede so late, it can be lack of concentration when your body is tired and when mentally you become tired, you tempt to do mistakes. We don't have to blame anyone for this. This time around we should have slowed down the game but that's football for you."
Against Bengaluru FC too, Blasters dominated the game for a major share of time. But still, a minute error in the defence led to a goal, which eventually took away all three points. FC Goa could only have nine shots in reply to thirteen from Kerala. Speaking on the result, the former Blasters player said,
"We are very disappointed. It was like three points we were in control. In first-half they didn't have any shots on target. In second-half there was hardly any real save which TP (Rehensh) had to make. But, sometimes lack of concentration which have been a little issue with us, costing points for us. Even the Bengaluru FC game, we dominated and one mistake cost us three points. Again its more like two points lost. It was our home match."
FC Goa faced a major setback when defender Mourtada Fall was sent-off for taking down Bartholomew Ogbeche in the second-half. Blasters, however, failed to capitalize on the numerical advantage as Goa put in the extra shift to keep the defence compact.
"Its very strange when you are one man down and you lose the game. They didn't have anything to lose. It was in the last ten minutes they tried to press. But we still got chances in the last ten minutes."
Kerala Blasters are undoubtedly the team most troubled by injuries. While Schattorie started the game with four foreigners, he was forced to replace new signing Vlatko Drobarov with Abdul Hakku. Ishfaq opinioned that putting up a good show with more Indian personnels is a positive factor for the club.
"We are one of the teams from the second match playing more Indian players on the pitch and doing pretty well. Those are some positives things we can take forward from this game as well."