NorthEast United FC will be on the road for the second time this 2018-19 season when they take on defending champions Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Thursday. After bagging four points in their opening two fixtures, the Highlanders will be hoping to seal their second consecutive win and claim the top spot on the league table. Prior to the matchday, the visiting club’s head coach Eelco Schattorie was present at the pre-match press conference to share his thoughts on the match.

The Dutchman initially spoke about the weather conditions in Chennai’s, while also speaking about the home side’s unpredictable approach. “It’s always difficult, almost for all teams. The biggest challenge at the moment is to adapt to the humidity here (in Chennai). Yesterday, we were training in the morning and it was really hot. In the evening, it seems to be better, but that always needs some adaptation. Secondly, of course, Chennai is off as they lost two games. You never know how a team is going to react after that. You can compare this situation with a dog that you put in a corner. It’s scared, you never know how it’s going to react. Does he bark or is he going to be more scared? So, that’s very difficult to predict. The only thing I can do is to focus on my own team. Our spirit and team dynamics are good, but we’ll see tomorrow how the days of rest worked out.”

The NorthEast manager also shared his tactical insights behind Rowllin Borges’ new attacking role in midfield. Here’s what he said, “Overall as a coach, my preference is to play a 4-3-3 formation. But of course, everything depends on the quality of the players we have. In this case, we play 4-3-3 and the midfield I like to deploy consists of one holding midfielder, who is a little more defensive, one box-to-box player, in this case, Rowllin , and one more creative player that is a Federico (Gallego). In my opinion, that is the best balance. In my opinion, Borges has the ability to play as a holding midfielder; but I think he has the ability to score goals, he has the physical ability to go box-to-box and has a decent tactical ability to be creative. So, he has a good mix of all. I think Rowllin fits perfectly in that role.”

The 46-year-old was asked about his team’s morale ahead of the much-awaiting encounter, to which he replied confidently, “If you would have asked me before the season started about the teams I wouldn’t want to play, those two teams were the ones I would’ve named (Chennaiyin and ATK). And, we got them right away. I have said it before and it’s not being negative, but looking at our pre-season and the obstacles we faced and coming out of that in this way (is great). Because in my opinion, we didn’t play strong games and we had to face it in the first games. Now, this is the third one against Chennai. In the first two, we got out with four points and hopefully, we get three points more tomorrow. “

Read the match preview here.