ISL 2021-22: SC East Bengal are a competitive team, it will be a difficult game – Hyderabad FC’s Manuel Marquez

Hyderabad FC head coach Manuel Marquez has admitted that it will be a difficult game for his team against SC East Bengal as the opposition is a competitive side before the 70th game of the ongoing Hero Indian Super League, which will be played at the Tilak Maidan Stadium on Monday. SC East Bengal had registered their maiden win of the season as they had defeated FC Goa by 2-1 in their last game.

However, Marquez believes SC East Bengal had played decently before they won their first match of the season against the Gaurs.

SC East Bengal has won a solitary game out of the 12 they have played and are currently placed in the 10th position in the standings. The club is also playing under the tutelage of new coach Mario Rivera, who took charge from interim head coach Renedy Singh.

Manuel Marquez said in the pre-match press conference, “This is the fixture so we have to play them. I think they were playing good football even before winning their last match. They are a competitive team and now they have changed their team a bit. We don’t know a lot about how they will play under the new coach. It will be a difficult game for sure”.

On the other hand, Hyderabad FC is currently in fourth place in the standings and they have 17 points under their bag. Thus, they can climb to the second position if they go on to win against SC East Bengal.

Marquez added, “This opportunity is always there. You win a game and you climb up. We have always been in the top half of the table. The opponent is not important. We have a game and we need to win it. We know five or six games were postponed so the table is not real at the moment”.

Meanwhile, Marquez added that the quality of the crosses matters more in Football than just the quantity so that the team can create serious chances to score.

Hyderabad FC gaffer added, “In my opinion, there are countries, maybe India is one of those countries where statistics are important. For me, you can cross a hundred times but maybe you don’t have to cross at that moment. It’s not about the number of crosses, it’s about the quality of the crosses. We have two complete offensive fullbacks who are usually one of our tools in the offensive but you have to choose when to cross”.