Following their nil-nil draw at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi, Mumbai City FC head coach Peter Reid was addressing the media and his satisfaction with the one point was evident.The former England midfielder was content with the way in which his team performed and dealt with the early onslaught of the opposition. He was also of the opinion that although his team started slowly like they did in their previous games, they recovered composure and ended the game on a strong note.“I thought we started slowly, and I knew we had to start quickly. But the atmosphere that the crowd created was fantastic out there. All credit to Kerala Blasters! We had a chat at half-time to try and keep it (form and passing) better. It’s fair to say that in the second half, we created a couple of chances, a couple of opportunities to get in behind (their defence) but we didn’t pick out quality goals. David James also had a good save to make, we hit the post and in the dying minutes we had a fantastic chance, which nine times out of ten would have gone in.”The gaffer further added: “I think it is fair to say that the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game. For the positives, I am happy that we kept a clean sheet, and that sides are finding it hard to break us down, whereas for the negatives we need to get that quality in the final third and score a few goals.”When asked if the team’s game play was hampered by Nicolas Anelka playing in a slightly deeper position instead of being more further up the pitch, the former Manchester City manager insisted that although Anelka is effective up front, the striker was being marked out of the game and therefore he had to bring him in a slightly withdrawn role so as to provide the Frenchman with some space and room to be creative.“Well, sometimes when he has been going forward he has been man-to-man marked, so what do we do? We bring him back to give him space and take up on the creative role anywhere on the pitch and that to me is the best way to play him. We can make excuses that we have injuries in the form of (André) Moritz, (Freddie) Ljungberg, (Syed Rahim) Nabi, and those are three players that have that quality in the attacking sense, so we are just missing that at the moment. We have kept four clean sheets in a row and a total of five, so we have done well defensively but now we have to find a solution for our attacking part,” he trailed off.Reid & Co now head back to Mumbai to host FC Goa, a team that is desperately seeking a win to stay alive in the Hero Indian Super League.
