Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham, after the 3-0 loss to Kerala Blasters FC in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) at PJN Stadium, Fatorda, stated that his adapted well after being reduced to a 10-player team.

Despite the defeat, Mumbai City FC sit comfortably at the top of the league table with a margin of four points to the next closest team, Hyderabad FC.

The head coach has expressed trust in the players to recover well and bounce back for their next encounter against NorthEast United FC on December 27.

Buckingham spoke to the media after Match 35 and here are the excerpts from the post-match press conference.

Where do you think the game was lost tonight?

I don't think it was lost tactically. I don’t think we played well. I was really happy how we played in the first six games despite the loss against Hyderabad. Tonight it just didn’t work. Well done to Kerala Blasters on the result of the win but we didn’t get going tonight.
Would it be fair to say that they gave you a taste of your own medicine in terms of playing attacking football?

They attacked us and they attacked us well. We didn’t get into our stride in the first half and the goal straight after in the second half kind of killed it off a little bit. Then, to lose a man to take you to three on the penalty, it is very difficult to get yourself back in the game.

Talking about Mourtada Fall’s red card, you did not concede via open play after that, is that a small victory you will take home tonight?

The way the players adapted with us three behind and going back into play with ten men in a state of game like that, we played well. But again we can’t get ourselves into such a position. We need to get better and like I said, we need to play like we did in the first six games despite the loss to Hyderabad, where we lost 3-1, we actually played well there and tonight it hasn’t clicked. We will make sure we recover and bounce back pretty quickly for the next one.

How do you pick the boys up for the next match?

They won’t need picking up. As a group of players, they are motivated to do as well as we can. All this happens sometimes in football and you cannot take it too bad. We’ve got eight days of turnaround time and we’ll get it right and it is important that we come back in the next game and respond well.