The Delhi Dynamos head coach is optimistic of his team's chances.After eight matches and the last one coming on the back of a big loss against FC Goa, Delhi Dynamos FC find themselves at the bottom of the Hero Indian Super League standings. And with another six games to go, they will be bolstered with the return of Harm Van Veldhoven to the sidelines when they take on Kerala Blasters FC on Sunday. The Dynamos’ head coach was forced to sit out of the last game as he was sent off by the referee for dissent in Kochi.“I am happy to be back,” Van Veldhoven beamed. “We gave up a very good position in the league, but we have to react now. We are six points away from the first place. In the last game, there were a few situations that were different. We had a lot of games one after the other, so the players were not fresh. The players that make a difference were not able to do that. Sometimes, we make substitutions to get players fit for the forthcoming games, and in that sense we feel satisfied. However, we are not satisfied by the way we played our game on Thursday. In our last encounter with Kerala, we drew 0-0. After the first 20 minutes, we did take control of the game and in the second half; we created a lot of good chances. In tomorrow’s game, we will try to finish off the chances we get. I hope we can take three points from tomorrow’s game,” enthused the coach at the pre-match press conference.When asked about the lack of goals by his strikers, he replied, “When you don’t score, you blame it on strikers most of the time. However, you need to focus more on how the ball is being delivered to them, and how many chances the forwards get in a game. I see it as a team weakness, and thus I am more disappointed in other things. I am not disappointed in my strikers but more in how they get the last ball. I think we have to work harder on that.”Delhi Dynamos’ forward Mads Junker and midfielder Souvik Chakraborthy were also present at the media interaction alongside their coach. “We have to be honest. We haven’t created that many chances in comparison to the other teams,” said Junker. “They have some really inspirational leaders such as Elano (Blumer) and (Nicolas) Anelka. We have scored the least goals in the competition, but like the coach said, we need to create more chances. I think I get at least one chance every game, and feel I should have scored a goal or two more. But we also need to get more goals from set plays. Also, if you don’t score goals or win games as a team or as a player anywhere in the world, you lose 10-15% of your confidence. We need that extra luck to get that first goal or maybe get a penalty, but even for that, we cannot play around the midfield. We need to get higher up and develop our attacking skills from crossing, combination play and free kicks. We still have six games to go and still have a chance to qualify.”Van Veldhoven too felt that his team lacked confidence, which could clearly be seen in their last game against FC Goa. “When we were 1-0 down in the last game, the strikers were very nervous and did not ask for the ball anymore. They were afraid that they would do something wrong. This is not a good reaction, but it’s also human to react like this sometimes. I hope this will not become a pattern in the team. Nonetheless, it was also the first time we conceded four goals. So we have now spoken about this situation and how to react and recover from it. We will give a reaction tomorrow.”However, it was Chakraborthy who had the last word when he declared, “We have learnt from our mistakes and tomorrow will be a new beginning!”The action between Delhi Dynamos FC and Kerala Blasters FC unfolds from 19:00 IST on Sunday, November 16.
