Bengaluru FC have had a vastly different season that what they are used to, as they find themselves pretty much out of I-League contention this season.
However, coach Albert Roca would be desperate to show that his side have arrested the slump, and Saturday's heavyweight clash against Mohun Bagan provides the perfect platform for the same.
“Mohun Bagan has the possibility of winning the title, so we suppose that they will come here and fight with their all for the three points. They’re a good team, it will be a tough game,” he felt, while speaking at the pre-match press conference.
Roca laid it out that looking too far ahead would be detrimental to the already bruised Eagles.
“Bengaluru cannot afford to see even as far as the second game. We cannot go in to tomorrow’s game thinking what will happen in the AFC Cup game. We know that if we play well and win, we will have better chances in the second game as well. Our mind is fixed on the first game.
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“(About title hopes) As I said, we see only the next game. So we want to take three points against Mohun Bagan and give our supporters the joy they deserve,” said the Spaniard.
He felt that his side needed to inculcate more of a killer instinct.
“We need to be more aggressive. Especially in the box. Our strikers need to score more goals. We are generating a lot of chances. Unfortunately, the final touch is missing. The most important thing is to score. We have conceded chances that the opponents punish us from despite not making many chances. But that is football. But we’re still in the league and the cup, we have not given up,” said Roca.
Speaking about the scheduling in Indian football and the rest between games, rather the lack thereof, Roca was very critical.
“No coach likes that kind of scheduling. Everybody wants time to train properly, to prepare well. For me it is the same. But I don’t have that time. We have to accept the rules though, it’s the same for everybody. But for the nation it is time to see that this isn’t the right way, playing four games in ten days. Even for the people coming to watch the game, that isn’t good. It’s not an excuse, but something the federation has to see in the future,” he summed-up.
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The former Barcelona assistant was not pleased by the condition in which his new signing Marjan Jugovic arrived, but he declared that they had started him on a regime to bring him up to speed.
“We would have preferred he had come to us in better shape and condition, but that is not the case. It would have been good it he had come earlier, but circumstances weren’t that way. We have made a plan for him and are working with him on that. I think he has enough quality as he has shown in training sessions, but in the game, he looks out of his best condition. We look forward to have him help us in a short time,” he hoped.
Roca made his displeasure with the standards of refereeing clear. However, he added that they could overcome the refereeing mistakes by their competence.
“We are not happy with the refereeing, that’s the truth. We are not happy with the performance of a few referees against us. But it is not an excuse. We have to try our best to score goals. If we score goals, this will be out of our minds. You saw Barcelona the other day, they wouldn’t have reached the quarter-final if the referee had not made the big mistakes against Paris Saint-Germain. So that happens, but Barcelona were creating a lot of chances. We are not Barcelona, but we want to create a lot of chances as well,” he concluded.