Bengaluru FC’s head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli has addressed the areas of concern his side needs to rectify ahead of their clash against ATK Mohun Bagan on Thursday in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL).

The club has struggled to fight back, managing only one win in six matches so far with injury blows making matters worse. While talking in the pre-match press conference, Pezzaiuoli cautioned against ATK Mohun Bagan’s strong attack line-up while asking the experienced players to step-up.

Here are the excerpts from the coach’s press conference:

The season has not gone according to plan, how do you motivate the players to get better results?

The players are very motivated. I don’t think that is an issue. We deserve to have more points than we have right now. That's where we are unhappy. Not with the building up of the performance. But how are we getting the goals? That's all we talk about. It means the team needs to step up one step higher. It's not easy against an opponent like ATK Mohun Bagan, but we need to.

The more experienced players need to step up and be vocal to guide the youngsters. Irrespective of who's injured, the available players need to take charge and bring the best out of each other.

Do you see ATK Mohun Bagan’s front line as the most dangerous one in the league?

ATKMB are a quality team with Roy Krishna, Manvir Singh, Liston Colaco and others. They are very good on the counter and we need to make sure we're not caught out, to make sure the team is well organised for any attack.

After a string of losses, is the team under pressure to bounce back?

We're trying to find a new identity in our playing style, but the pressure is always on Bengaluru FC because we're a big club. Maybe luck hasn't been on our side but that doesn't matter, we have to keep working hard.

How is the Bengaluru FC defence shaping up? Are you happy with the performance?

Alan (Costa) and Pratik (Chowdhary) are doing well. Pratik has improved and has reduced the number of individual errors compared to last season. But while the defence is shaping up well, we've lost a key defender in (Yrondu Musavu) King.