FC Goa head coach ZicoFC Goa’s head coach Zico has welcomed the impending return of their marquee player Robert Pirès after the Frenchman served out a two-match ban, but felt the ban on him was unfair in the first place.Asked the most obvious question about the importance of Pirès’ return at a press conference on the eve of Goa’s match against Kerala Blasters in Kochi tomorrow, the Brazilian legend said, “Firstly it is important that he has returned because he is a great player and a great professional; but I thought that it was unfair that he was banned in the first place, so it is really important that he is back.”Zico seemed to be in a pretty confident mood after his team had beaten Delhi Dynamos FC in their previous game and said he was not considering changing his back four despite the quartet having shipped in eight goals so far. He was adamant that the team’s defence was not the main problem, rather it was the inability to convert their chances. “I think our problems is not the defence, we are losing way too many opportunities forward, and we have created many opportunities during our games. I think our defence is doing very well and I actually do not have any problem with them, I trust my defence to do their job,” he declared.Zico saw great similarity in the plight of his team and that of his rivals tomorrow who are languishing at the bottom of the table. “I think Kerala is the team that is in the same situation as us, they have four points and it was very difficult for them to play so many games away from home and they need to win some games; so we need to be very cautious about the way we approach this game, because now they are playing at home,” he averred.Zico said he is comfortable with the idea of the versatile André Santos playing more as a striker for the team. “That is my first choice, since we do not have many players in that position and Edgar (Marcelino) was injured, so we had to play him there. Additionally, if you look to some of the games in which Santos has played previously, he is always playing in the forward or forward left positions, so I believe that he can play there,” Zico said justifying his decision.Lastly, when asked to comment about the condition of the ground which had a cricket pitch built in the centre most recently, Zico smilingly replied, “I haven’t seen it yet, and I hope it is suitable for practice. So far, most of the grounds that we have played on have been good, and on the television it looks good too, so now I will look at the pitch more closely, but thank you for pointing that out!”Goa’s Australian forward Tolgay Ozbey, who was also present at the media interaction, is looking forward to playing at the Jawarhalal Stadium in Kochi as he considers it a lucky ground. “I have played here twice before and scored on both occasions, so I hope that I can score tomorrow and help my team win,” he quipped.
