Kerala Blasters FC fans have plenty of expectations from their new coach Steve Coppell as their side prepares itself for its opening 2016 Hero Indian Super League encounter against NorthEast United FC at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Saturday. They have every reason to be buoyed as the Englishman comes with strong credentials having coached clubs like Manchester City, Crystal Palace and Reading in the past.
It’s been a roller-coaster ride for the Kochi-based side over the past two seasons as the success of the inaugural season that saw them finish runners-up quickly dwindled into a last-place finish in what was a chaotic season in 2015. Indiansuperleague.com spoke to 61-year-old Coppell ahead of the 2016 Hero ISL’s curtain-raiser and discussed a variety of subjects. Here are the excerpts from the interview.
What’s the philosophy of this new-look Kerala Blasters FC?
I don’t think there’s any philosophy we adhere to, I think the only philosophy we have is to try to get the best out of the squad of players we have to win football games. It would be wrong for me to come to any football club or football team and say this how we play and then find the players are not suitable for the philosophy. Myself, my staff came in, we looked at the players and then we trained, started playing and from there we started to develop a style of play, which we hope is going to be successful. We’ve worked very hard for the last four and a half weeks to try and make things efficient and to try to make it forceful going forward. And I will be as interested as anybody come the first game to see where we are at because it’s a very difficult league to compare against other teams when you’re in the preparations. So I’m really looking forward to Saturday because then I’ll have an idea of where we are, how we need to improve, how we need to get better and look forward to the rest of the season.
How important is a good start to the league?
It would be great to have a good start to the league, don’t get me wrong, I think good start would be a huge plus for the team because we’ve been working for five weeks and during that we haven’t had the full squad together but the players who have been with us all that time have committed to a way of preparing. A good start would really put the cap on it and make it all worthwhile I suppose. [However] I noticed a stat this week, the first game last season [for Kerala Blasters FC], the team won 3-1 and they finished bottom of the table. So a good start doesn’t guarantee anything, it’d be nice, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a victory on Saturday but it doesn’t guarantee anything. I will be judged, the team will be judged on 14 games initially and then going on to the later stages of the league.
How’s the team gelling?
I think you have to remember that the first week of training for the full seven, eight days we only had 12 outfield players. So we had to change and be aware that we always had players coming in, adding to the squad. It’s only this last week that we had 20 players. In this last week we’ve had a pretty healthy squad in terms of numbers, the teams have more or less been defined in my mind and again I think the players have really got a handle on the challenge ahead. I think now as we get close to the game they realise what is required for the next nine weeks initially and we have to be resilient, we have to be strong, we have to be hardworking and we very much have to have the mentality that if we get knocked down then we jump back up and start again.
How important will wingers be for Kerala Blasters FC this season?
Well I can only say that as a winger myself, I played in the wide areas. All the teams I’ve been associated with have had good wide players and a lot of play coming down the flanks. I’d like to think that this team will be similar but then again if you haven’t got wide players you can’t play wide-play football and I like to think we have got some good strong players but until we see them in action, we can’t really judge them. So wing-play is very important, a lot of goals are scored from wide areas, I would like my team to be dominant, attacking from wide areas.
How intense have the training sessions been?
Again, they’re winding down at the moment, we had a lot of very intense training sessions suddenly early on in the campaign, in our preparation period. First phase of work in Trivandrum and then we went to Thailand and then to Kolkata. At certain spells, we have been pretty hard-working, demanded a lot from the playersphysically and we have tested them mentally to see if they can accept the picture of the way we play. I hope the players are ready to feel that they can play on Saturday because that’s the most important thing. Physically and mentally, they’ve got to feel as if they are happy with their situation come Saturday.
What is the importance of the half-time team talk? How do you motivate the players?
Well, sometimes you don’t want to have a half-time team talk. If you play well, you are a goal or 2-0 up, you don’t want half-time to come. You just want to keep playing. Obviously, things are sometimes aren’t going too well and you need to make some changes at half-time. I don’t think a motivational talk at half-time makes a massive difference. Don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t transfer a team playing badly into a team playing well. I always say football is like a technique. If your technique is wrong, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, it’s not going to work. So it’s the technique of playing that is most important. If changes have to be made, psychological or tactical, then obviously half-time is the period when it needs to be done. A good half-time talk can make a big difference. I don’t think it’s the motivational talk, it’s the tactical change.
How important are the pre-season games for the players and the coach?
They are the yardsticks. They are the only way you can judge. When you are training in pre-season without games, you are just looking at statistics of how fast players run and how many yards they run. With the technology now, you can check heart-rates and you can be a very fit team without being a good footballing side. It’s only when you play against other teams that you can judge and say, ‘We are heading towards the right direction’. Pre-season games are really important. To be honest, I would have liked to play one, or even two more, pre-season games. The Hero ISL is difficult in many ways to find difficult opposition across various parts of India. And we have found that in many ways. It’s been difficult to get the right kind of opposition. We have played only four pre-season games. I would have liked one more.
