Murphy’s law perfectly fits Chennaiyin FC’s plight — “whatever can gone wrong will go wrong.”
With just a point from five matches, CFC is going through a torrid time. The defending champion’s defence isn’t what it used to be last year and the forwards are missing gilt-edge chances.
CFC’s opponent in the Indian Super League (ISL) on Saturday at the Nehru Stadium here is Mumbai City FC, which is in a relatively better position with seven points from five matches, but still has plenty of issues.
Coach defends team
CFC’s assistant coach Sabir Pasha defended his team at the press conference here on Friday. He said: “Though we are missing chances, performance-wise, we are doing really well. We are not short in creating chances. It is [due to] lack of concentration [that] we are not able to score,” he said.
On the poor run so far, Pasha cited a similar situation Chennaiyin had in the second ISL season when under coach Marco Materazzi, it endured a bad phase. From being last in the league table at one stage, Chennaiyin went on to win four consecutive matches to qualify for the play-offs. “Many lost hope [then]. You cannot write off anything. We are confident of coming back,” he said.
On the injury status of midfielder Dhanpal Ganesh from injury, Pasha said there was no clear picture yet on the local player.
Mumbai City is coming after a fine victory over Delhi Dynamos at home in its last match. Coach Jorge Costa said it will be a tough game against Chennaiyin. “We respect Chennaiyin. It is true that they did not start well. But they have very good players and coach. We will try to do our best,” the Portugese said.
Costa said his aim was to be consistent and produce results. “At the moment in the league, a lot of clubs are separated by only one or two points. We need to try to separate ourselves with a win,” he said.