ISL 2020-21 | I believe in my squad: FC Goa’s Juan Ferrando

FC Goa will be looking to continue their three-game unbeaten run when they take on Jamshedpur FC in their 11th match of the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) season on Thursday.

The Gaurs are currently sitting at the fourth spot in the table with 15 points to their name whereas Jamshedpur FC are at the sixth spot with 13 points. While FC Goa have had good defensive outings in the last three matches, they will need to deal with the threat of an in-form Nerijus Valskis in this match.

However, coach Juan Ferrando is not bothered about focusing on one individual. Instead, he is preparing his team in such a manner that they can handle the threat posed by the entire Jamshedpur squad as a whole.

“I believe in my squad. No individual plan for anyone. Be it Valskis, Lima or Jackichand. For us, it is important to play as a team and to prepare against the Jamshedpur side. Jamshedpur is a very good team. We have to improve game by game. We try to find our mistakes and in the training, we are working on it. We don’t want to repeat the same mistakes,” Ferrando told reporters on the eve of their match against Jamshedpur.

“They are strong in set-pieces. But we have a solution. It is important for us to control the timing and space. The last goal from Valskis was perfect. But the aim is to control the second ball,” the Spaniard added.

Ferrando has given plenty of opportunities to young players like Princeton Rebello and Saviour Gama, and they have lived up to his expectations pretty well. He reiterated that he wants to give them more opportunities so that they can keep developing themselves as players.

“My target is to help the young players get better and become important players for our squad. We have just two or three training sessions between games including recovery. This is a problem. We need more time to prepare for a team.

“Our target is to get three points every game. In the first round, we are not completely happy. We move game by game. After Jamshedpur, we have ATK Mohun Bagan. It is difficult in football to be completely happy. We lost four easy points. We have got some exciting young players. The character of the players and personality has been a big positive.”

The Gaurs have six overseas players in their roster at present and they cam add one more player of they want. Ferrando informed that the team is actively looking to fill that slot in this transfer window.

“We are checking players but it is important to get players who can help the team and help the young players improve. These two points are very important. If we don’t get players fulfilling these two criteria I am happy with the squad until the end of the season. “