FC Pune City will be hoping to return to winning ways when they travel to the JRD Tata Sports Complex for their clash against Jamshedpur FC on Sunday. The Stallions have won two and lost two matches out of their first four fixtures in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 and head into the clash against Jamshedpur on the back of a loss.

Pune head coach Ranko Popovic admitted that he isn’t very happy with the mixed start his side has made this season. “Look, I don’t like this kind of mix. Better mix is if we can win one game at home, and another away, but until now, that is not the case. Like I said, I expect a really exciting match tomorrow, and I also expect us to do better. We are doing well, and maybe our best game was the last one, but we lost 1-0. We didn’t give many chances to the opponent, but we must work a bit on our concentration in key moments. If we do that, I think we have a good chance to get a good result tomorrow,” he told the media at the pre-match press conference.

When asked to assess Jamshedpur, the Serbian said: “(We’re) in the beginning of the league, I don’t think there is much difference between the clubs, but, if I have to speak about Jamshedpur, I can say that they are probably the best organised team defensively. If you see the results that they have; they have not conceded a goal up till now, and that speaks for itself. They play really well, and it will not be easy for us, but we have to find a way to score goals, and it will be a challenge for us.”

Popovic also weighed in with his thoughts on Jamshedpur’s pitch, which has been under the scanner of late. “The condition is (the same) for both teams. As a club, we must have respect for all the people that are on the pitch, and are trying to make it good for the match tomorrow. If I came here, and saw nobody there, then I would have been angry, because the pitch was bad. But, now I saw the people there who are working day and night. I hope everyone is doing their best, and tomorrow’s pitch will be in good condition to allow some good football. Otherwise, for the players, they have an excuse if they don’t have a perfect pitch – if they make some mistakes, they can blame it on the pitch. But we must accept it, and try to give our best effort for a good game tomorrow,” he said.

While Popovic did concede that some of his players are injured, he held his cards close to his chest as far as their identities were concerned. “Unfortunately, like every side, we have a few injury issues, and some guys with fever. First thing that I look at after every match is, how many players will I have for training tomorrow. But I think that now we are better, and our fitness is much better, and I hope we will be more stable in the future. But until now, we have had injuries, and for tomorrow as well, some are injured, and some are sick,” the 50-year-old added.