Delhi Dynamos FC head coach Gianluca Zambrotta calls for a winning mentality from his players ahead of the Lions’ 2016 Hero Indian Super League opener against defending champions Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.“I like my team to play in a compact manner. It’s very important for me. They have to attack together and defend together as a team. Another important thing is that I like my team to have a winning mentality,” Zambrotta, who took Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos’ place at the helm ahead of this season, told reporters on Wednesday.The Italian also gets to meet former team-mate Marco Materazzi, who is in charge of the Super Machans for the third successive season. Zambrotta said he was looking forward to playing a tough opponent in Chennaiyin. “I won a World Cup with Materazzi, he’s a good friend. But tomorrow we’ll have an interesting game against a difficult opponent. Chennaiyin are a very good team and we’re ready for them.”Many believe that Delhi’s campaign heavily depend on marquee player Florent Malouda, who provided eight assists for the Lions last year. Zambrotta is no different. “Malouda is a very important player for us. He is a leader in terms of his contributions on and off the pitch. He is a player who can also help teach the young players,” he said.Talking about his team’s Indian representation, Zambrotta said: “We have very good Indian players and their levels have been going up day by day. So I feel very good about the Indian players. They are good fundamentally and are intelligent. Most importantly they want to learn.“I’m very happy with the pre-season. We had a very good pre-season and i am happy with the work we have put in. But the league begins tomorrow. It means that our work starts tomorrow and we have do well from tomorrow for the pre-season to have any meaning.”Meanwhile, Dynamos defender Anas Edathodika insisted that his team meant business against the defending champions. “They’re a good team. They won the title last season. But we’re here to try and win all three points,” he said.Edathodika also said they won’t take long to adapt to their new head coach’s style of play, which is very different from Carlos’. “They’re very different. Even as persons, they’re different. They have different mentalities, Zambrotta and Carlos are really different as coaches. Because of that we as players have to now get used to a different playing style. But no worries, we’ll adapt.”
