ISL 2021-22: Wasn’t a good game today, as we didn’t play our style of football: Hyderabad FC’s Manuel Marquez

Hyderabad FC head coach Manuel Marquez was not happy with the performance of his team as he admitted that the club didn’t play their style of football against SC East Bengal after a 1-1 draw at the Athletic Stadium, Bambolim in the 39th match of the ongoing Hero Indian Super League on Thursday.

Amir Dervisevic opened the account for SC East Bengal in the 20th minute but Hyderabad FC was quick to respond as their talisman Bartholomew Ogbeche equalized 13 minutes later. Hyderabad dominated the possession with 60% and took a total of five shots on target but could only convert one.

Meanwhile, Asish Rai and Juan Gonzalez could not play due to their respective injuries and Marquez feels the team missed their defensive nous.

Manuel Marquez said in the post-match press conference, “They couldn’t play, because Ashish received a strong tackle and we’ll be out for more than one game and the other guy has problems with his knee that’s Juan González. Then we try to play with another player’s Joao Victor, he has played a lot of games as a center-back not only in Hyderabad but in a lot of other clubs. But when you don’t win and you play a bad game like today, you always remember the players who are not in the lineup”.

Hyderabad FC gaffer was not satisfied as his team had to share the spoils against SC East Bengal, which is placed at the bottom of the points table and is yet to win their maiden match of the season.

When asked whether he is satisfied with one point, Marquez added, “Of course not, I think that we didn’t deserve more than one point, but  I’m not satisfied, during the championship there will be games like these. When you don’t play well, at least one point is good. But of course, we lost a good chance of adding one more win”.

Marquez added that there weren’t many positives for the team as they didn’t play to the best of their abilities against SC East Bengal.

He concluded, “Not too much. I think the team was very bad, even from the bench we didn’t have the team with the substitutions. If I have to say something, maybe the performance of Sahil Tavora in the second half was very good. But I think that in terms of football we didn’t play a good game and when you don’t play your style of football, this kind of thing always happens”.

Hyderabad FC will next face Odisha FC at the Athletic Stadium, Bambolim on Tuesday.