Owen Coyle believes that Jamshedpur FC has a better squad depth than last season which puts them in a good position against tough opponents as they gear up for their third match of Hero Indian Super League 2021-22 season against Hyderabad FC at Athletic Stadium, Bambolim on Thursday.

Jamshedpur FC bounced back strongly in their second match of the campaign against FC Goa after drawing the first one with SC East Bengal. To the delight of Coyle, their star players had hit the ground running in the last match. Nerijus Valskis scored a brace. Both of his goals were assisted by their recent acquisition Greg Stewart. Later on, Jordan Murray came off the bench and opened his tally.

Similarly, Hyderabad FC recorded a statement win over defending champions Mumbai City FC. The club had lost its first game against Chennaiyin FC but it’s all in the past now.

Ahead of Jamshedpur FC’s match against Hyderabad FC, coach Coyle addressed the media during the official pre-match press conference.

Here are the excerpts from the press conference.

Hyderabad FC like to play attacking football, how does Jamshedpur FC look to counter that?

You have teams in the league that play different styles. Hyderabad FC will give you different problems. Their midfielders and fullbacks play very high. So, they do have attacking threats. We have to equally make sure that we are imposing ourselves on the game. If we bring our qualities to any game then we will cause problems to the opposition. And that’s what we have to do.

Like Jamshedpur FC, Hyderabad FC have also been nurturing a lot of young Indian talent, what do you make of it?

Hyderabad FC showed last year. The young center-back Sana Singh, the two full backs Ashish Rai and Akash Mishra, the kids in the midfield who are wonderful on the ball. They have a good mix of young talent and experience. So, they will get utmost respect from us. They have a wonderful coach. If we are at our very best, we feel it’s a game that we can win.

It was a great win against FC Goa. What are your thoughts on the match?

I think the important thing was the team performance. Against a team like FC Goa you have to defend well and be positive in attack as we were. It’s behind us now. We have to focus on a really tough game against Hyderabad FC. They have wonderful players and an outstanding coach. We drew both the games with them last season. We want to go one better and get those three points. I think it will be a very good game.

Jamshedpur FC have a lot of attacking flair in their line-up. Will we see more attacking football?

We were a good side last year but we wanted to add that attacking edge to our play without being dismissive of our job without the ball. As most things are in football, it’s about getting the right balance.The great thing is we have options this year. We were limited last year. Now we have really good options. That’s what you want as a coach, a squad that can give you selection headaches.

Alex Lima has been used as a box-to-box player, how good has he been?

Lima has been outstanding. He played with an injury last year. The character he showed for the team. He took painkillers to help out the club. Now that he’s fully fit, he is showing what an outstanding player he is. He is wonderful on the ball and works so hard off the ball. He is a perfect modern day midfield player.