Sergio Lobera is all set to begin his first season as Mumbai City head coach in the Indian Super League (ISL).
With impressive signings, especially in the foreign players' department, onboard, the former FC Goa tactician is excited to work with his new-look squad.
The Spaniard has brought in a lot of players from FC Goa but has said that the formation and tactics will not be a replica from his days with the Gaurs.
"It is possible to (keep changing) the formation because we need to play with the best players (for each match). In our style of play, you can play 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2, but the most important thing as a coach for me is that the players understand our style of play.
"With very good players in the squad, you need to manage them well, but it's an amazing problem. As a coach, I have the best players and I will try to work well collectively as a team in our style of play," he said.
He added, "You know what my idea is and the last three seasons (at FC Goa) reflect my philosophy as a coach. I believe in this (attacking) style of play. I think it's very important to play attacking football. Obviously, you need a balance because it is not possible to play football by only attacking.
"Obviously, we want to win but it's not only about winning. We have to keep the ball when we need to keep possession, quickly recover the ball when you lose the ball, try to play (more) in the opponents' half and score a lot of goals."
Mumbai City FCSatisfied with the summer transfer dealings at the club, the former Las Palmas coach has admitted that working with familiar faces is easier. He also complimented City Football Group (CFG) for their involvement in finding the right players who can adapt to his philosophy.
"When you have some players who have played under you before (Jahouh, Boumous and Fall, Mandar Rao Dessai who followed Lobera from FC Goa), it's easier to implement your idea in a short time but I need to build a team. It's not about individual players. Football is a collective sport and just having very good players doesn't mean you have the best team. We need to work with 28 players and try to get the best for the team.
"You need to sign players thinking about what you want to do and about our style of play. Working with Mumbai City and the City Football Group, every day we had a lot of communication about the profile of players we need and I am very happy with the players I have," he explained.
Lobera also highlighted the importance of man-management while dealing with multiple high profile players. He also pointed out the crucial role of the Indian players in the squad in order to land the ISL title that he couldn't win with FC Goa.
Mumbai City FC/Goal
"As a coach, you want the best players. You don't want problems and you want only to play with the best 11 players but I need the full squad to win the trophy. With very good 11 players you can only win a few games but not the league. My job as a coach obviously is to improve the level of the players tactically, technically, physically and mentally but the most important thing is to manage the group well.
"Everybody needs to know our collective objective and secondly I need to find a good balance between individual and collective targets because it is my job to manage all players in all kinds of situations in the best way possible.
"We have very exciting talents but the most important thing is to improve the level of Indian players and foreign players to have a big role in improving the Indian players. It's impossible to win the trophy when the level of Indian players is not good or if the foreign players don't understand well what is the situation of football in India," he concluded.
