Kerala Blasters FC will play their second home encounter of the 2018-19 Hero Indian Super League (ISL) season when they take on Delhi Dynamos FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Saturday. The Blasters have bagged four points out of a possible six and have looked a formidable force under head coach David James. A day prior to the match, James was present alongside club captain Sandesh Jhingan at the pre-match press conference to take questions from the media.

The Englishman began by expressing his disappointment on not collecting all three points in their previous match against Mumbai City FC, but admitted that it gave him the opportunity to analyse what went wrong and prepare accordingly. “Yes, it was like losing, when you’re winning and looking like you’re going to win and someone scores. It was a wonder goal (from Pranjal Bhumij). Yeah, it was like a defeat. It was frustrating. But, we have to analyse the game objectively and not subjectively. And then look forward to the next match against Delhi with our strengths against their weaknesses.”

Delhi have a packed schedule this week, playing two matches in a space of three days. Nevertheless, James opined that they have a big enough squad to cope up and will deliver a lot of quality. “We had a similar fixture list last season when we came here in January. We’re not worried about what they got after tomorrow. There are 25 players in the squad. Fresh players can be used especially if you’re playing the third day. We’ve got a lot of respect for them. They’ve got a lot of quality and we have to make sure that our quality is there for 90 minutes.”

James was also pleased with the much-needed time he got to spend with his players during the international break. “It was actually good because there were a few issues that some of the players had to deal with. So, they got time to deal with them. Unfortunately, a few players were dealing with viruses. So, we weren’t at our 100% training cycles. But the two weeks went the right way.”

Kerala’s defence has been formidable over the past two matches, barely affording their opponents clear cut goal-scoring chances. A pivotal figure in that backline is Jhingan, who pointed out the hunger and desire shown by his teammates as one of the primary reasons for their good performances. “Everyone is putting in an effort. We attack together and we defend together, and it only comes down to tackles. Everyone puts in the effort, everyone is hungry, shows the commitment and desire. I’m really happy with the way things are going.”

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