Matchday two of Hero Indian Super League 2017-18 will see the action shift to Guwahati where Northeast United FC host league debutants, Jamshedpur FC at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium. Donning the NEUFC colours for the third successive season will be midfielder Halicharan Narzary, who’ll be eager to rock Jamshedpur’s experienced defence with his speed, pin-point crosses and clinical strikes. Speaking to indiansuperleague.com ahead of NEUFC’s season opener on Saturday, Narzary shared how it feels to represent the Highlanders with a new look squad and coach. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

How different is the philosophy of Joao de Deus compared to others?

From all the other coaches [NorthEast have had], he’s the youngest coach. I like him. He speaks good things and conducts good training sessions. So, I like him.

How well has the team gelled prior in pre-season?

As of now, in terms of the Indian players, it’s completely new. There are only 2-3 Indian players from last season. I just want the team to play together and play well as we approach our first home game.

Your first match is against a new team in Guwahati. What’s the atmosphere going to be like?

All the home matches, be it new or old teams, all the fans and the supporters that come in, I hope that we play well and give them something to cheer. We hope to play well.

Some of your teammates from last year will be playing against you. How does it feel?

Five to six players will be playing against us. But it doesn’t matter much. We step on the field only to play and give our best [for our respective sides]. Off the field we are friends, so it doesn’t matter much.

Your thoughts on the pre-season.

Pre-season was really good. We played at Guwahati, Manipur and Turkey. We played a couple of matches and we’ve played well as a team.

Your personal goals and objectives for this season.

I’m back home and playing for my home crowd feels nice, so I just want to give my 100% for the team and play well and hopefully take the team to the semi-finals.