Chennaiyin FC head coach Marco Materazzi wants his team to continue the good work ahead of their 2016 Hero Indian Super League game against Kerala Blasters FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Saturday evening.The defending champions started their 2016 Hero ISL campaign off on the wrong foot with a draw and a defeat in their first two matches but have since recovered gathering seven points from their last three matches. Now they play Kerala and Mumbai City FC in a matter of four days and Materazzi understands the importance of doing well in these two matches.“These two games will be fundamental for us. It’s tough to win even one game in this league and winning two in a row will be very tough. But we did a good week of training and we know we’re going to face a good team with good quality in attack. We could have gone to the top if we had won in Pune but we need to get back on track and we will play with an aggressive mentality. In this league you can never stop. If you suffer one loss, you’re still in, and not out. Like FC Goa lost a few but they are a very good team and they can make it up. The league is such that the teams in the lower half can always keep up and we will keep training and look to go on like this and try to win as many games as possible,” Materazzi told reporters on Friday.Talking about his team’s 1-1 draw in their last match against FC Pune City, Materazzi said: “Yes, I’m happy about the performance. I’m talking about myself and not the players. They know that it was two points dropped because it was a free-kick that should have been in our favour but then we weren’t smart enough and I’m upset. If we had been smarter, then it would have been two away victories.”Chennaiyin lead the head-to-head against the Blasters, having won four games out of six. One ended in a loss and one ended in a draw. Materazzi insisted the previous results won’t have any bearing on the game on Saturday. “No, previous games don’t have to have any influence. Because if they did then, we would have lost our games after the Delhi match. I was disappointed, maybe it was the worst game I had in three years of the ISL. My players, however, were mature to change their attitude and I’m happy they proved it on the pitch,” the Italian said.Materazzi also praised Eli Sabia’s work in defence and reiterated his horses for courses policy for the Super Machans. “Yes, Eli has shown a lot of quality in defence and we know that the basic choices are [John Arne] Riise and [Bernard Mendy] but I must praise both Eder Monteiro and Eli Sabia for being so professional and acting like real men on and off the pitch. As I said whoever deserves to play, plays. This year my whole team knows that the team comes before the name. Maybe it was lacking in the previous years but now all my players are mature to show this. Like Mendy in the last game when he did not play, he showed that he is mature and professional and he kept on cheering and then he got back on the pitch and put in a good performance. My philosophy is to play anyone who deserves to play and you can see Jerry [Lalrinzuala] playing because he plays like a man. You will see this shuffling a lot of times this season,” he said.
