NorthEast United FC head coach Khalid Jamil was satisfied with his team’s defensive effort but felt his team needed to be more creative in front of the goal after his side played out a 0-0 draw against Kerala Blasters at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Margao, Goa on Thursday.

The Highlanders failed to have a single shot on target in the game as Albino Gomes had very little to do in the Kerala Blasters goal.

Jamil’s men now have one point from their first two matches and they will be keen to get a win under their belt soon.

The Indian spoke to the media after the game. Here are the excerpts from his post-match press conference.

Do you think the absence of someone like Federico Gallego is affecting the attack. Will his return help the team create more chances in the future?

Yes, Gallego is a quality player. We need him. But we planned to have him ready for the next match. I thought of giving him a chance today for at least 30 minutes but the situation of the game was not in favour of putting another player. So maybe next game we see him because he has just returned to fitness.

In the last match you lost 2-4. This time it is a 0-0 draw which is a point gained. Dop you think the players have rectified the mistakes from the last game?

Defensively, we did well. With Hernan and Flottmann, there was stability in defence. Pragyan also did a good job but we lacked in the attacking aspect. We need to create more chances to get a positive result.

You chose a three-man defensive set-up with Santana and Flotmann. Was that a conscious effort?

It was not a three-man defence. Flottmann was a centre-back along with Hernan and Khassa (Camara( was a defensive midfielder.

After suffering 2-4 losses in their respective first games, did you think the teams were cautious and lacked ideas in attack?

Today Deshorn (Brown) didn't get chances. He only had some 50-50 chances. We needed him till the end but unfortunately we had to change him because of injury. But next time we have to improve attacking wise.