Peter Reid was brutally honest about Mumbai City FC’s recent performances and the team’s abject defending, but promised that his side would try to put its best foot forward and redeem itself tomorrow.Speaking on the eve of Mumbai City’s clash against Kerala Blasters FC in Navi Mumbai, the club’s English head coach said, “Our last performance was not that great. We hardly passed the ball and we were poor while defending. We did alright in our first half against NorthEast United FC, but without making any excuses, I think that the injury and red card in the second half did us in. Against Chennai, we were so poor. If you defend like that as a team, you cannot win a game.”The former England international and England junior coach elaborated further on their sloppy defending but hoped they would be able to change the game tomorrow. “I do not want to take anything away from Chennai who played very well on the day. The first goal was via a sloppy penalty that we gave away and the next few came from balls down the centre. I cannot legislate for such poor defending,” he said.Looking at the positive side, Reid however pointed out that Pavel Čmovš is back from suspension, (Nicolas) Anelka has had a game under his belt and (André) Moritz is up to speed. “Everybody is disappointed and wants to put it right. Tomorrow, in front of our fantastic home crowd, we shall endeavour to do that,” Reid promised.Reid also accepted his side’s inability to score during their heavy defeats and agreed that goal difference could become an important factor. “We know that goal difference can decide a semi-final spot and we have not done ourselves any favours. In the matches against Chennai and Kolkata, I felt at times that we were in the game. But poor defending along with the inability to finish off the chances that we created, hurt us badly. We will have Moritz and Anelka playing tomorrow, so I hope that we can score some goals, but more importantly, I would like a clean sheet,” he affirmed.The former Manchester City and Leeds United gaffer also said that he was disappointed with the manner in which Čmovš had picked up a red card against NorthEast United FC. However, he conceded he was missed in the defeat at Chennai and was glad to have the Czech defender back. Reid also refused to blame goalkeeper Subrata Paul for some of the goals that were conceded against Chennai, choosing instead to refer to the four outstanding saves the India custodian made in the last game which kept the scoreline down.Reid also revealed that his team had worked hard during the week on their defensive skills: “I sat the team down for a video analysis and told them to execute it during training. I hope they can replicate it during the game. If Elano would have curled one into the top corner from 30 yards, I would have put my hand up and admitted that there was nothing that we could have done about it. But when you concede twice, from balls down the centre, you know that there is something wrong.“I hope that we can tighten up and not be leaky at the back. Kerala Blasters are coming in tomorrow, high on confidence. We will need to defend very well. As a team we should not be stretched. We need to make sure that the midfielders are also defending when we lose the ball. I also think that sometimes we stay too high up the pitch. We hope to address it tomorrow.”
