NorthEast United FC manager Rickie Herbert has been constantly holding forth on the rationale of his youth policy. At the press conference on the eve of his team’s match against Delhi Dynamos FC in the national capital tomorrow, the New Zealand gaffer again spoke on the benefits of having a young Indian squad competing in the Hero Indian Super League. “Well, I’ve said it before, for us it’s a good thing to have young players. I thought we played very well against Mumbai; we came off with a really good result. We’ve got young players but they’re also very inexperienced, they learn the most with exposure so we will see tomorrow,” he said.Herbert said that it is important to invest in these youngsters who play for Shillong Lajong in the I-League and have not had much exposure. And the investment which the club is putting into this local talent will prove to be beneficial for the franchise in the long run.Asked to assess his young Indian players and what he would like most of them, Herbert said, “They’ve played good football from time to time, The most pleasing thing for me would be if one of these boys scored a winning goal.”When questioned about his prospects against the hosts who are one of the two unbeaten teams in the tournament, Herbert replied, “Let’s see if Delhi retain their form, they’ve already dropped four points in three games which is quite a thing to do. I think they’re very interesting on the counter and I think they’ll do very well at home.”Defender Robin Gurung, who was also present at the media interaction, is thrilled with the new facilities the ISL has to offer. “The facilities have really improved, we never had these kind of facilities before. It used to be very difficult with the facilities we had before but it’s much easier with the ones we’ve been provided,” he remarked.
