With the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2018-19 slowly entering the business end, every match comes with an added urgency for the teams vying for a playoff spot. For two-time champions ATK, Sunday's home fixture against fellow playoff-hopefuls Jamshedpur FC may very well turn out to be the make-or-break match of their campaign. A loss or a draw won't particularly rule them out of the knockout phase, but will definitely make their progression very unlikely.

Ahead of the potential six-pointer, ATK head coach Steve Coppell took questions from the media at the pre-match press conference. The Englishman began by providing an update on the squad and declared, "We have no problems. Edu Garcia had a sore foot, but we are anticipating no problems. Balwant Singh was sick for the last game. He lost a bit of weight in a short period of time and he’s not the biggest. So, he couldn’t afford to do that, but he’s fine. Manuel Lanzarote was suspended, so physically all along he’s been alright. So, we have a full squad to select from."

Amongst all the other returnees, Lanzarote’s inclusion in the matchday squad will probably be the biggest boost for the Englishman. Speaking about his talisman and the rare luxury of choosing the starting XI from an entire squad, Coppell said, "Yes, it’s a big positive. Having everybody to choose from, it gives you more options. And the options are important at this stage because it’s the business end of the season. It’s the end of the season where all the results are magnified, and wins are magnified. So, that’s very important."

ATK have scored just 11 goals so far this season - the least among all the teams. Coppell admitted the issue and hinted that there might be a few tactical tweaks to address the issue in the remaining matches. "It’s been our issue all season. We work very hard to try and create more opportunities. It may very well be that we have a different approach tomorrow, a different style, a marginally different formation to try and be more of an attacking threat," he said.

Coppell, however, recognized that it will be a tough test against a hard-to-beat Jamshedpur side. "But Jamshedpur have only lost one game and they don’t give much away. So, again it’s a question of getting that balance correct so that we have a little more of a punch up front, create more opportunities, but also making sure that the door at the back is locked and tight. We don’t want to give too much away," he added.

Lanzarote’s return provides the 63-year-old with a dilemma up front, considering the fine performance of new signing Edu Garcia in the last match. On being asked about how he would try to fit them together, the veteran coach said, "Good players play together. I don’t really wish to put them in a straightjacket. We’re coming to the part of the season where you want to give your match winners the freedom to win the match, if possible. We don’t want to constrain them. It might be an occasion where you just give them the freedom and say, play."

However, playing Lanza and Garcia together would mean Coppell will have to sacrifice any one of John Johnson, Andre Bikey, Gerson Vieira or Kalu Uche in order to comply with the five foreigner rule. Coppell was, however, tight-lipped about his decision and stated, "I’m not going to say. You can speculate, that’s what I can say with regards to that. There has to be an adjustment. It could be in midfield, it could be defensively. But we’re at home. We’ve had one game, all the teams above us have had a win. We need a win, but Jamshedpur need a win too. It’s a crossroads game at the moment."

Read the match preview here.