ISL 2022-23: Not chasing records, but performances – Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham

Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham stated that his team is not chasing records but performances in the ongoing season of the Hero Indian Super League 2022-23. The Islanders are still unbeaten in the season and continued their good show as they defeated Kerala Blasters FC by 4-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena on Sunday.

Mumbai has won 10 out of their 13 matches in the season and they are currently at the top of the standings with 33 points.

Meanwhile, Pereyra Diaz gave a 1-0 lead to the home team against the Tuskers in the fourth minute of the game. The hosts then doubled their lead after Greg Stewart scored in the 10th minute. Subsequently, Bipin Singh scored six minutes later whereas Diaz scored his second of the night in the 22nd minute to give a convincing 4-0 lead to his team.

“The records are not something that we have spoken or are a target for us. If you start looking at those things then you start chasing them. It is not the records that we are chasing, but the performances. We have so many measures which we use internally to measure our performance. And if we hit those measures more often than not and hold ourselves to the standards we have set, we have shown that results often come. They don’t often come, but it is nice to know that has happened. It’s always a nice thing for people to talk about, but for us, it’s not something that we talk about,” Des Buckingham said at the post-match press conference.

Mumbai City FC took a total of six shots on target and continued to dominate the game in the second half after taking a comprehensive lead of 4-0 in the first 22 minutes. However, the Islanders could not take their chances in the second half.

Buckingham said: “The first 30 minutes was some of the best football I have seen the team play. It’s difficult to come out and score four goals in that space of time and football never continues in that fashion. The second half was about managing the game. Last week, when we scored while the score was 1-1, it was about how consistent could we be. If we speak about behaviors and our standards, how well could we continue to manage this game and do it as well as we could. And that was pleasing in the second half.”

The Islanders have been unbeaten so far and the Englishman revealed the focus of the team is on the next match against ATK Mohun Bagan.

“It’s not the goal of mine or the team (to stay unbeaten). Our goal returns to (the game against) ATK Mohun Bagan. Every team comes with a different game plan and makes it difficult for us to try and stop us and they want to beat us. The same way we do when we go there. So we won’t lose sight of that. We just need to make sure we rest, recover and make sure we prepare as well as we can for what will be a tough game,” he said.

Mumbai City FC will take on the Mariners at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata on Saturday.