ISL 2022-23: Play with your head and heart, says Simon Grayson’s message to Bengaluru FC players

Bengaluru FC head coach Simon Grayson has advised his players to play with both their head and heart in the first knockout match against Kerala Blasters FC in the ongoing Hero Indian Super League. The Blues will host the Tuskers at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday.

Bengaluru FC didn’t get off to a great start in the season but they were able to turn the tables in the second phase of the league stage. Simon Grayson’s team is on an eight-match winning streak and they will look to continue the good show in the all-important knockout game against Kerala Blasters.

The Blues had finished in fourth place in the standings with 11 wins in 20 matches with a total of 34 points.

Meanwhile, when these two teams met in November, Kerala Blasters had won by 3-2. However, Bengaluru FC was able to take their revenge in the reverse fixture as they had won by 1-0 in February.

“Obviously, we will get extra confidence from beating Kerala Blasters FC, but we have been confident when we beat ATK Mohun Bagan and FC Goa, and Mumbai City FC, so we will go into the game with really strong spirits, good confidence, but not over-confidence. The performance against Kerala Blasters FC the other week was very good, which helped us along the way to where we are now. But this is a different game. It is a one-off game,” Grayson said in the pre-match press conference.

The English manager is expecting an electric atmosphere at the stadium and feels the fans will turn in numbers to support his team.

“The atmosphere will probably be electric. Maybe twice as mad as it was, a few weeks ago and it’s a different game, different personnel but we just have to approach it like we did in the league game. We have to be hard to play against when we get opportunities to be ruthless and play with your head as well as your heart, play with the passion and desire that’s embroiled in these games, but you got to make sure you don’t do something.. that is going to cost the team in the long term (view) of the game,” he added.

Grayson urged his players to play according to the match situation and come up with goods if the opposition changes their plans.

“We’ve done our work this week and it’s been sort of mentioning what (Adrian) Luna can do. But you certainly have to be wary that they’ve got some lots of other fantastic players as well, we’ve got to be certainly aware. So, we understand the basic principles of how they’ve played from the two games being involved against them. But if they come up with a different game plan, we have to deal with it. We respect the opposition. We do the work on the opposition. We know the strengths and weaknesses. But we got to make sure that we play to our capabilities and if we do then we’ve proved that we can hurt a lot of teams, who are some of the best teams in this division,” he commented.