As far as goalkeeping is concerned, Mumbai City FC’s Amrinder Singh undoubtedly has one of the safest pairs of hands in the country. The 24-year-old showed a little demonstration of his talent during his short stint in last season’s Hero Indian Super League (ISL). Having played only the last six matches for the Mumbaikars, he kept five clean sheets to ensure his team’s passage into the final four as table toppers and with the best defensive record. Consequently, that stellar performance earned him the Golden Glove award. This time around though, he will have his work cut out for him what with India’s first-choice ‘keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu joining Bengaluru FC to give him competition in the league.Sitting down for a tête-à-tête with indiansuperleague.com, the Punjab-born Amrinder gave us his take on the season ahead.Mumbai City have retained an important part of their core team for the next ISL, and Amrinder expressed his joy while pointing out that this was an important factor from the defensive point of view.“I am really happy that many players have been retained. We have seen, last season, Mumbai have done well in their defence. That’s why I think they have retained more defensive players because their focus was to keep the defence the same.”A major miss, however, from the Mumbai side will be India’s all-time top scorer and captain Sunil Chhetri who moves to Bengaluru FC in the ISL. While Amrinder respects Chhetri’s influence, he is also confident that their coach Alexandre Guimaraes has things sorted.“I’ve been playing with Sunil Chhetri for the past two to three years and he is a really good leader,” he admitted. “It’s good to have him in the team but I think the coach has planned and made a good team, so I don’t think it’s going to matter so much as to whether he is present in the team or not. But when he’s there, it’s fun to play with him.”As the Mumbaikars’ first-choice custodian, Amrinder also welcomes the competition that will be put forth by Arindam Bhattacharya, while also pointing out that a healthy duel between the two would benefit both.“I’ve played with Arindam before during the (Hero) I-League. It’s not just goalkeeping. If any other position also has competition, the team automatically performs well. As Arindam was there with me last year as well, my performance improved. During training, we try and push each other to the limits. And if you have someone from whom you can learn, then the team’s performance will improve naturally.”Mumbai’s defensive lynchpins from last year Lucian Goian and Gerson Vieira are both back for the new season, and Amrinder is quick to point out the chemistry he shares with them.“I played with them for four or five matches last season,” he said. “I think I feel comfortable when they are in defence and they give me the confidence and suggest to me what I should do differently. I talk to them as well about how to go about things, and it’s not like they don’t listen. They listen and keep that in mind.”And finally, the lanky 6’2” goalie also highlighted the influence of their coach.“Last season, all the staff, players and the coach were together as friends; and being close together is extremely important. I believe the whole team depends on the coach. The coach keeps the team disciplined and keeps the environment friendly, and this is absolutely important for the team. Now he’s retained four to five players from last season and I believe the team is much stronger than before,” he explained as he signed off.