Kerala Blasters FC head coach Ivan Vukomanovic was extremely pleased with his side's sound victory over NorthEast United FC in matchweek 5 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2022–23, as his side scored three second-half goals to secure full points at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, in Guwahati, on Saturday.

Having kept their first cleansheet of the season, Vukomanovic felt he could do with a different approach for tonight's game and was delighted with the end product as his side was able to secure full points after fielding a different playing XI.

The 45-year-old shared his thoughts on his side's goal scoring attributes, defensive woes, and said it is all a part of football as he addressed the media in the official post-match press conference.

Here are the excerpts from Vukomanovic's press conference:

A very good win for your side after three games. How important is this victory?

If we speak about the previous period, three defeats back-to-back. It was crucial for us to achieve points and victory. After a couple weeks of disappointment, in the last few games, we were playing good football and had our moments, but we could not achieve (the) points.

As a coach, you start asking yourself about having different options to approach the game. Tonight, we started the game with new names on the pitch since we have a very good squad. All of them deserve to play and I am very happy that they showed quality and commitment to the team.

We knew before the game that this was going to be a difficult game against a hard opponent, and you can suffer if you do not approach such games with 100% concentration. After the first half, we had a team talk about how we wanted to set up in the second 45 minutes and stay compact while using the transitional moments. Things went according to plan, and the result shows it paid off.

Kerala Blasters FC can score goals, but this season, the team has been leaking a lot of goals. What are your thoughts on that?

The beauty of this league is that any team can give a tough ride to every other team. The opposition has had a bit of bad momentum, but they possess the qualities to be higher up the table.

Against every opponent in the Hero ISL, you have to be aware of the danger and concentrate. In the last season, we saw that in any situation, you could not afford to be casual, it is not fair. Right from the first half, we showed that we needed to be compact, and in the second half, there were a couple of moments where we could have scored more. But, in the end, we were happy with the result.

In every game, you will face moments where the opponents will create chances and you will have to defend well. I am glad the boys were clinical in front of the goal.

Your team has a set core of Indian players. How important is it for you to have that luxury?

As a coach, I always like to give chances to the players, especially the young players who have the potential to improve. There is a huge scope ahead of them because the building of a player starts with the youth, and from the things I have seen since last year or this year, we speak about the quality of young players the country has. The youth are a very crucial part of every squad. We at Kerala Blasters FC organize the B team and the U15 and U17 teams, these boys have to go through these phases in order to become a professional football player.

I will always give chances to these players from the young lot and believe in the individuals who are motivated to improve, to work hard, and to become better. At this club, we always want to nurture the young players and give them chances to flourish in the first team, and with the help of our fans, we want to achieve many things going forward.

If every team in the Hero ISL starts believing in this philosophy, then that will be very advantageous to the national team, and it will start a chain reaction in the league of promoting young talent all across.

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Kerala Blasters FC2022-2023 Match 24,NorthEast United FC vs Kerala Blasters FC