Aizawl coach blames fatigue for failure

Pratyush.Raj@timesgroup.com

Panchkula:

Aizawl FC

coach Santosh Kashyap cited fatigue as the reason for his side’s loss against Minerva Punjab FC, here on Monday.

“I think fatigue was a big factor (for the loss). There was no recovery time for my team since their last match. It’s tough to play so many matches in such a short span of time,” he said. “Minerva are a good team and they put us under a lot of pressure but I think in the first half we defended well.”

Kashyap also stated that the uneven surface at Tau Devi Lal Stadium compelled them to abandon their much-successful short passing game in the match against Minerva.

“We play on artificial turf at home and that’s an even surface. So we can play our short passing game. Here (at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium) the surface was uneven, and therefore we could not play our brand of constructive football. So, to be on the safer side, we started playing high balls and tried to put pressure on the opposition by adopting that tactic,” he said.

Despite the loss, the 51-year-old believes in his young team and said that “they will improve further as they play more matches.”