Jamshedpur FC suffered a humiliating 5-0 defeat at the hands of FC Goa in what was their final league game for the 2019-20 season. The Jharkhand-based outfit had a forgettable season as they could only amass 18 points from as many matches.
Despite having picked seven points from their opening three matches, Jamshedpur failed to get consistent results as injuries hampered their campaign.
“In the first 60-to-70 minutes we played better than the other team, we created more chances. As a team they (FC Goa) have very good players. After the second goal, there was a clear penalty that wasn’t given and after that they were better than us. The main difference is that they have very good individual players and they show it every time they have a chance,” said coach Antonio Iriondo.
He called for the club to introspect on why the club failed to make it into the play-offs for the third consecutive season.
“The rest of the season was hampered with the injuries. Probably now somebody has to take the responsibility of this. Maybe the easiest thing is to point to the staff and the coach but I can say is that mainly I care for Jamshedpur. Maybe the reflection has to be deeper and we have to think carefully what has been the problem,” he mentioned.
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The Spanish coach was also questioned on the role of Karan Amin in the squad as the player has hardly played in any matches in his three years at the club.
“Why are you only asking about Karan? We have been trying many full-backs throughout the season and many players have played there and no one worked very well. Probably at one point we felt that Karan wasn’t physically as fit as other players but he understands the game very good so we gave him a chance.
“He wasn’t very different to the other full-backs. So I don’t know why ask only about Karan and not other players. The thing is that we have been working with a very short blanket. When you are trying to cover your upper body your feet comes out and vice versa. You need a bigger blanket to cover the full size. We did not have a deeper squad so when we went to fix one side the other side got exposed,” commented Iriondo.
Sumeet Passi who is a striker by trade was deployed as a full-back and also as a midfielder during the season by Iriondo.
“You maybe surprised that we used a forward (Sumeet Passi) as a full-back but he did very well. It is an idea that I never thought about at the beginning of the season to use a forward as a full-back but the situation was like this.
“So it is not just about experimenting with players. When something is not working you have to fix it. We have been trying to fix some positions in which we were struggling. Now the coach is not working and you can change the coach. But if you change the coach you will not be able to change everything in the future,” signed off the Spaniard.
