ISL 2017: Shakti Chauhan - You will see a different Delhi Dynamos on Saturday

Delhi Dynamos haven’t had the best of seasons so far as they have picked up only one victory in their five matches. On Saturday they come up against ATK in Kolkata where coach Miguel Angel Portugal will not be in the technical area after he was sent to the stand in the last match.

“There will be difficulty psychologically as our head coach (Miguel Portugal) won’t be present. But we are going to do the same things together and operate as a technical team. It’s going to be the head coach’s ideas which we will impart and it will be my and the technical team’s responsibility to cover up for the coach’s absence,” said assistant coach Shakti Chauhan.

Chauhan maintained that his team have done well to keep the ball but have struggled to turn that to create and finish opportunities.

“We (Delhi Dynamos) won our away match and lost another. Then we lost our three back-to-back home games. Unfortunately, if you look at the games, we’re the one who are maintaining ball possession and having a good attack. But sometimes you are so unlucky that despite playing well you are on the losing side. So maybe this year luck isn’t on our side but it won’t be (like this) for too long,” he mentioned.

“It’s not only about bad luck, it’s about bad decision making as well. We weren’t able to make some right decisions when the opportunity came towards us. That’s one of the reasons why we couldn’t capitalize on good chances,” he added.

He praised the reigning champions, ATK who too haven’t had a great campaign thus far. The Delhi Dynamos assistant coach said that his team will aim for nothing less than three points in order to propel themselves further on the table.

“ATK is a good side and have won the league twice in three years. They’re a strong side but are also not doing well except the last win. However, they’ll be motivated and have more confidence than us but we want to put a statement by getting three points.We don’t have a special plan for Robbie Keane or any of the special players from ATK but we are going to work as a team.  

“We have been analyzing each and every game and we know where we are lacking. We are working on our weaknesses with regards to goal-scoring and defending. Definitely, you are going to see a different Delhi Dynamos tomorrow (Saturday),” he said.

ISL

While Albino Gomes is more or less ruled out for the season, Kalu Uche too may not be available for selection.

“Kalu Uche is injured but we aren’t sure if he might start. Albino Gomes too has a problem and we are unaware how long he will be away from the team. We have two goalkeepers in Sukhdev (Patil) and Arnab (Das Sharma); both of them are doing well in the training.

“I cannot comment on Albino Gomes right now because the medical team is looking after him. The injury does seem serious but how serious is it, I cannot comment. He has slightly dislocated his knee but not sure how serious this is,” he mentioned.