It is now two wins out of as many matches for Mohun Bagan AC, but their perfectionist coach Sanjoy Sen still believes that his side needs to work on a few things, as the season progresses – in particular, the defence.
“The way we conceded the goal, there is of course room for disappointment because I wanted to keep the cleansheet. But you can’t always get what you want,” said Sen. “It was a bit of a nothing-to-lose situation for them, when we were 4-0 up, and we made a couple of mistakes at that point.”
At the centre of the defence was Mohun Bagan’s newest recruit Luciano Sabrosa churned out a match-winning performance today, scoring one goal and dictating thing from the back.
“Luciano is a person who has been playing in Indian football for a long time. So he knows a lot of players, and is a quality player himself. I had worked with him earlier at Mohammedan Sporting, which is an added advantage,” said Sen, about his star defender.
Sen looking to improve Indian players
On being asked about the number of local (Bengali) players in his side, Sen waved away the questions, saying that he has the welfare of the Indian footballers at heart.
“I never look at my players as Bengali or non-Bengali. It is a challenge for the Indian players,” said Sen. “We all depend a lot on foreign players. Yes, the foreign players win us the matches, but I personally want the Indian footballers [to do well].”
Sanjoy avoids Derby-talks
With the much awaited Kolkata derby looming large on the horizon, it was inevitable that more than a few questions about the match against Mohun Bagan’s arch rivals would be hurled at coach Sanjoy Sen. However, the 55-year-old was in no mood to entertain any talks about the derby.
“There’s still a lot of time for us to think about the East Bengal game. There are seven days left,” he said. “So of course I’ll think about what to do in the game, but right now I haven’t thought much about the derby yet. I can’t really answer your questions regarding that.”
