Csaba Laszlo was extremely disappointed with the performance of his team as Chennaiyin FC slumped to a 4-1 loss against Hyderabad FC at the GMC Stadium in Bambolim, Goa in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2020-21's Match No.47 on Monday. Chennaiyin FC were completely dominated by Manuel Marquez's Hyderabad FC as Halicharan Narzary got a brace while Joel Chianese and Joao Victor got a goal each.
The scoreline at half time was goalless but Hyderabad FC had plenty of chances to score and finish the game even in the first 45 minutes. Laszlo was not happy with his team's performance and he could only muster words of praise for his goalkeeper Vishal Kaith.
"Even the first half was a poor performance. Even in the first half, it could be 3-0 in the favour of the opposition. I must be honest, this wasn't a football match from my team. We were happy with some of our games but today, we were not good. The goalkeeper didn't even have to make saves. I try defending my team but today, very, very bad performance from everyone. May be Vishal, if he doesn't make saves today, it could be seven-eight goals. We didn't have Crivellaro and our offence was not definitely not good," Laszlo said to the broadcasters after the match.
Laszlo was particularly unhappy with the lack of creativity in the middle and said they lost completely control in the midfield, which eventually cost them the match.
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"I think I try today to have players in the middle with Chhangte and Memo, they can play football but there was no creativity. Someone who can take the ball and make those passes, we missed that today. Even if you pass the ball but there is no movement off the ball, if there is no ideas and creativity, it doesn't make any difference as we saw today," he further said.
Laszlo said he would need to talk to his team about losing confidence after conceding the first goal but admitted that they weren't in the game right from the start.
"From the beginning, we weren't in the game, from the defensive point of view as well. In the first five minutes, we could have been 2-0, 3-0 down. It looked like we didn't have enough attention to keep the ball out. In the first half, Vishal saved two chances and even in the second half, he made a couple of saves but unfortunately, it was a mistake from him for the first goal. It was just our goalkeeper who performed well today.
"The biggest problem in the second half was that after 1-0, everybody lost confidence. It wasn't just Vishal, we just didn't come back in the game. We have to talk about it, work on it and I hope we can stop this," he said in the post-match press conference.
Laszlo said they were working with Lallianzuala Chhangte about missing the big chances but added that against Hyderabad, even that wasn't valid. "I think missing chances is not just this season, it's like always (smiles). If we talk about Chhangte, he is a player who can change games. He is still young and has time, we work on it. Today, he just had one chance, may be if he scores, it could be a different game, I don't know. Today, I can't even say we missed chances because we just had one chance I think."
Laszlo then explained the idea behind bringing on Edwin Vanspaul in place of Jerry Lalrinzuala in the second half. "In that moment, we were already 3-1 down and I was thinking that may be we could change the shape, get three behind and one attacking midfield more. In this moment, you want to score more goals, that was the idea."