ISL: NorthEast United better than ever, says Lalthlamuana

Robert Lalthlamuana, a veteran of many battles with clubs like East Bengal and Delhi Dynamos, said that North East United FC had a good pre-season in Turkey and has the right balance to make it to the Indian Super League semifinals this time.

According to skipper Robert Lalthlamuana, North East United FC had a good pre-season in Turkey in lead up to the ISL season - 4.

Robert Lalthlamuana, a veteran of many battles with clubs like East Bengal and Delhi Dynamos, said that North East United FC had a good pre-season in Turkey and has the right balance to make it to the semifinals this time. “We had a pre-season camp in Turkey for two weeks and I think it went very well. The team has improved a lot from the first friendly we played in Guwahati. We can already feel the difference,” he said.

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The Tata Football Academy graduate said the team was getting better with each day under the guidance of coach Joao Carlos Pires de Deus. “We played a lot of competitive matches in Turkey. All the players in our squad played these matches and we did a good video analysis of our performances. We have worked on our mistakes, and I can tell you that we are a much better team now than we were when we left for Turkey,” the captain said. “Our objective is to win more matches and that would start from our first home match against Jamshedpur FC. With the League scheduled to be played over a longer period this time, our target will be to keep the momentum and qualify for the play-offs,” Robert added.

Coach de Deus concurred with the captain. “What I have to do is to get the boys to win more games than they did in the last edition. It is about getting points, getting victories, it is not very complicated to understand what we have to do, we have to win games and earn points in order to be in the top four,” he said.

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“We should think step by step, if reach the play-offs at the end of the league, it will be a wonderful result for the team. We are doing our best to be in perfect shape, and if we can win games and play good football, it will be fine. I cannot promise victories but I can promise a big effort from my boys to play well. I really think and believe that this is going to be a good season for the fans, the players, the club and me,” said de Deus.