ISL 2019-20: Ishfaq Ahmed claims there is no losing, only learning for the Blasters after defeat to Chennaiyin
Kerala Blasters succumbed to a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League on Friday to extend their win-less run to eight games. The Blasters have not won since their opening day victory against ATK.
The visitors found themselves level through a brilliant strike from their captain Bartholomew Ogbeche, but could not deal with Chennaiyin's wingers who made inroads all game through their defence.
Just before the start of the game, it was intimated that Kerala coach Eelco Schattorie would not be on the sidelines for his side after triggering an automatic one game suspension for picking up a second yellow card in their previous match.
That meant assistant coach Ishfaq Ahmed oversaw proceedings and he also attended the post-match press conference.
In a game where they were largely second best, referee Om Prakash Thakur and his officiating crew's decisions stole the attention. After allowing a Chennaiyin goal they went on to disallow it besides numerous other decisions during the game.
Coach Ahmed found the events hard to fathom. He said,
"I have not seen many such decisions in my football career before. It was clearly our foul, but the referee didn't communicate with his assistant and the Chennaiyin players continued playing and scored. The refereeing has to improve for Indian football to get better. Especially in a derby game like this, decisions like this cannot be allowed to influence a game."
Asked what could be done about this Ahmed suggested strong repercussions for erring officials.
"Don't know if the technical committee will raise this issue, but hope AIFF has a plan for improvement. May be there should be some punishment for the referees who make errors and they should go to the second division and those who are performing well there should be promoted."
He did concede however that the loss was due to his team's defensive shortcomings.
"I think we defended very poorly in the first half and that was the reason for our loss."
The Kerala players after the award of the goal were furious and took the ball away and refused to start play. Their pressure played a part in the referee overturning his decision, but immediately from the restart, Chennaiyin scored again and Ahmed felt the moment played it's part in the goal.
"Sometimes such things break concentration. That judgement led to frustration for my players. Yes, we should have maybe shown some maturity at the restart, tried to slow down the game a little."
He also felt that incident and subsequent second goal for Chennaiyin turned the tide of the game.
"We were in control of the game after our equalizer. But after that decision, they upped their game and came at us."
Asked if he was worried about the team's lack of improvement, Ahmed felt the current coaching group was trying to instill a new style of football.
"There are two ways to look at improvement. For the fans, they want the three points. But we are looking at the stats where we are the highest in crosses, second in number of touches. In previous seasons they (Kerala) have been playing different football. Changing that pattern can't happen overnight. We are also missing some key players who are getting injured at the wrong time."
The latest to join that list was Ogbeche who was forced off with an eye injury late in the first half.
Kerala next play on 28th December when they entertain NorthEast United at home in Kochi.