Chennaiyin FC head coach Thomas Brdaric assured the fans that the loss against Mumbai City FC is not the end of the world for the team and his players will put up a complete performance on Saturday against Jamshedpur FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23.

Both the Red Miners and the Marina Machans are coming after a defeat and want their sides to turn the tides. Similarly, both the teams are suffering from various injuries for a while but Chennaiyin FC’s head coach is confident that he has enough players who are hungry to play.

Brdaric was accompanied by his right back Ajith Kumar in the official pre match conference. The Gaffer also addressed the threats posed by Jamshedpur FC, and the need for stability in the team.

Here are the excerpts from Thomas Brdaric Conference:

What are the learnings from the previous match against a tough team like Mumbai City FC? How do you apply it?

Brdaric: We are still in process and the last match was really pretty tough to analyse because the first 30 minutes went really well and most of that was what we wanted to implement. After we conceded the very quick first goal then we had the lack of organization in the back, we analysed it and we know where the issues are. So this is the most important thing that we speak about. We have good communication (with the players). We have told the players that they should deny especially mistakes, poor passing, through passing without any pressure. It was one game that we lost, but it's not the end of the year and of the world. Every teams have these situations and we should run on them.

What are your thoughts on Jamshedpur FC? They are struggling this year after winning the shield last season. So just what you think are some of the strengths and areas which we can target?

Brdaric: We are aware of this important match on Saturday. We have to create the good atmosphere in the team what we need to implement at the right moment. Jamshedpur FC was the champion side. But the team changed very tremendously in the last period of transfer. They have a different team now, they are struggling a little bit but they also want to recover from the first set of matches. So it'll be really interesting to see how we will keep it.

In each of the first five matches, you started with two foreign central backs. Now with Nasser El Khayati back, do you think maybe you can play one foreign center by going forward so that it gives you an extra option in attack?

Brdaric: We have worked all of these considerations. We have to find the best option for starting 11. We need to find how we set the stability all the time and everybody will get the opportunity to play and the most important thing is to deliver for the team to prove themselves that they're an important part (of the club) and of course the player is able to get it consistently to get minutes and they have to show in spells. If we are able to defend altogether and then for me it doesn't matter who is playing but everybody must understand that they have a responsibility and doesn't matter (If they are in) starting 11 or Substitution. Especially the substitute players, if they come into the game, balancing the game, they must also understand it's not only to be satisfied to get the oppurtinity to play, they also have to deliver to stay in the team and that's why we trained this week in some different kinds of options we have planned and I hope that both of them succeed.

Jamshedpur FC is known for having least number of touches and possession in their half and they are known for putting long balls towards the target man Chima Chukwu, so how are you planning to face those long balls and counter attacks?

Brdaric: Yeah, that's why we are working every day to try our best for the weekend, to have a good understanding of how we want to play in pressing and how we want to stay well. The approach on the preparation is all the time different, all teams have different abilities. They (Jamshedpur FC) prefer to play mostly long balls to the wings or to the offensive player. We have to work really good in pressing and in the negative transition to double the players and to interfere with them at the right moment and to go as well in a fast transition. And this is one of the approaches we did this week.

If there were any injury updates on Kwame Karikari, Md. Rafique, Romario Jesuraj?

Brdaric: The last training session in the afternoon and then we will see which players we have available for the Saturday match at 5:30PM. The time will be different. It will help us to get more luck through the 90 minutes but we have enough players, they are ready to play. I see they are hungry. We keep going from the first day all the time because we know how to deal with issues and injured players belong to a season, so it would be in the best case of that to be honest and take the responsibility that the player can't play. We have good communication with Physios, therapists, and doctors. We have enough healthy players for the Saturday match and I'm convinced that we will be very good, organized and in the right moment to catch a moment for us.

What's the issue with Kwame Karikari? Because you said after the Bengaluru FC game, he had a calf issue but after that you said again he got injured or something. What exactly is the injury sustained?

Brdaric: Kwame Karikari is a pretty good guy with abilities. We need him in our game. He must also be healthy so that he is able to enforce his qualities and abilities. He had that issue but he wants to play. Of course if he's blocked, maybe in kind of movements, we will see today, if he's able to play minutes on Saturday and we have time for the afternoon session and to see how it works with him but the training sessions in the last days, he looks good and I hope we can use him.

Here are the excerpts from Ajith Kumar’s Conference :

We have seen many attacking movements from the right flank as you and Prasanth K are combining well. Is this a conscious effort from the coach or due to a better understanding between u and Prasanth K?

Kumar: It's a combination of both. We understand well and discuss the inputs which we got from the coach. We both communicate well and it works well in the game.

It's quite difficult to lose a match 2-6 after leading two nil in the first half an hour. What discussion did you have with players to prevent this from happening again?

Kumar: That loss against Mumbai City FC is because of the players' mistakes. We have implemented what we wanted in the first half an hour. But once we concede the first goal, we gave away the possession cheaply. It was frustrating for all of us. After that, we analyzed and discussed the match and now we have to implement what we want and not repeat those mistakes again.

The team is attacking mostly from the right side but at the same time, most of the goals conceded are also from the right side. So how do you balance both?

Kumar: Our coach prefers an attacking style of play but we are trying to balance both offense and defense. While analyzing the game, we can see what areas we need to improve. We are doing those balancing workouts for that (transition). I hope you can appreciate that difference in the upcoming matches.

You have lost 2 games in the home but have won 2 away games. Is there any pressure to win games at home?

Kumar: We play every match to win but there is no pressure as such. In the first game against Bengaluru FC, We dominated them fully but unfortunately, it ended in a draw.  In other games also we are dominating in spells and somehow not getting positive results. Playing at home is always an advantage and fans' support is vital for us, as they are motivating us to play well throughout the 90 minutes. Yes, we are all disappointed after the loss against Mumbai City FC but now we have a new target in front of us. We are focused on that.