Antonio Iriondo’s Jamshedpur FC is unbeaten in the Indian Super League matches on home soil and it will look to extend this run to five when it plays host to Chennaiyin FC on Monday evening.
The Men of Steel have picked up two wins and as many draws at home and the Spanish coach will be keen for them to close the gap at the top.
The bad news for Jamshedpur is that Sergio Castel, who has five goals to his name, hasn’t recovered in time after picking up a knock in the previous game against NorthEast United.
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Midfielder Piti has started training but will not be part of the matchday squad.
“We are going to keep trusting our players and the work they have done. I'm very happy with the situation at the moment. We have lost two of our foreign players (Sergio Castel and Piti) but the team is still performing good. I hope we continue with this kind of performance until we can recover both the players,” said Iriondo.
The former Indian Arrows boys, namely Narender Gehlot and Jitender Singh have taken to the ISL as a fish to water as they have fitted seamlessly into Iriondo’s system.
Farukh Choudhary has impressed everyone with his tricks and flicks but it’s about time for him to be more clinical in front of goal.
Meanwhile, these are interesting times at Chennaiyin FC as it has a new coach in Owen Coyle, who is well known for his stints at Bolton and Wigan. This was after John Gregory put in his papers and parted ways with the club.
Chennaiyin has just a single win to boast of and has conceded in every game, except one. Coyle’s immediate task would be to arrest the team's slide and sort out the defensive issues, both in terms of tactics and personnel.
“The first aim is to win games and do things systematically. I do recognize there are a lot of good opponents in the league. But we also have players with whom it is achievable to reach the play-offs.
“We are very respectful of our opponent (Jamshedpur), because they have great quality. But we don’t come with fear also. If we are at our best tomorrow, we can win the game,” observed the experienced Coyle.
Andre Schembri, who started its last game on the bench, is fit to start and it will be interesting to see if Coyle makes massive changes to the starting eleven or prefers the safer approach by fielding more or less the same players from the last match.
An intriguing battle at the JRD Sports Complex awaits.
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