ISL 2018-19: Jorge Costa takes responsibility for Mumbai City's defeat

A 2-0 loss to NorthEast United on Wednesday pushed Mumbai City FC to third in the 2018-19 Indian Super League (ISL) table.

Unimpressed with his side's showing at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai City head coach Jorge Costa was critical of the team's performance.

"At this level when you make defensive mistakes, you cannot get more than zero points. We made a lot of them. It is not only the defence line but the entire team. We also ran out of luck today. I did not see properly but I thought the second goal was lucky for them. When you don't have luck, you need to work hard a lot and we did not," he opined.

One of his trusted lieutenants on the park, Paulo Machado was substituted out with more than twenty minutes to go. Costa was forthcoming enough to agree that the Portuguese midfielder was indeed having an off day but it was the manager who took sole responsibility of the defeat.

He said, "If you're saying that we lost because Paulo didn't play well, then yes, today, I did not like Paulo, that is why I took him off. But, the first person guilty for this defeat is me. The players played because I put them to play, I choose the starting XI. It is true that I am not happy."

Mumbai City have now lost three games on the spin for only the second time in the club's history, the first since 2014. "Three defeats, I am not happy. But, all the other teams in the league want to be in Bengaluru's or our positions, this the reality. But this cannot hide the bad things that we are doing.

"Also, in the last few games, I have had to change a lot. We did not have Bose or Goian for this game. In another one, we did not have Sougou and we felt the difference when some of these players are missing," the former FC Porto man argued.

"The good thing still is that we are third on the table can we do not need other teams to lose points. We just have to do a job. We need to do it well just like we did it before and we need some luck. Our top four place depends on only the things we can do and we need to do it much better than what we did in the last three games."

The match was officiated by Jordanian referee Adham Makhadmeh and Costa felt an Indian in his place would have made no difference at all. "No, today we did not lose because of the referee, we lost because of us," he concluded.