Rene Meulensteen expects his Kerala Blasters team to play incisive one-touch attacking football to break through the wall of ATK’s defence in Friday’s Indian Super League (ISL) opener in Kochi. The Dutchman said that they will play an aggressive brand of football to create spaces and score.
“I have always told players that they should figure out who their favourite players are in their best position, see their clips and try and figure out what they’re doing right. If you analyse the top players, the reason they stand out is that they don’t take touches that they don’t need and that creates a different rhythm and speed of play,” he said.
The Kochi outfit has won just once in eight meetings against the two-time champions, a 2-1 victory that came three years ago.
Meulensteen will, however, have one of the players who scored in that victory in Iain Hume. The visitors come into the game not having lost a single first away match in three seasons. They’ve also scored 11 goals against the Blasters and beat them in two finals. However, Meulensteen said, “The past doesn’t matter tomorrow.”
This is not the case for ATK though, who will be without their star signing Robbie Keane. That will not play on the mind of Teddy Sheringham. The former Manchester United striker has enough strikers to choose from, with India’s Robin Singh being one of them. In midfield, he has Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Jayesh Rane, both supremely talented.
“We have worked hard on our defensive game, but we also want to go forward. We are going to play to win tomorrow,” said Sheringham.
On facing Kerala, Sheringham said, “It’s what every boy dreams of, every player, every manager dreams of - to play in front of 60,000 fans. They won’t be supporting us tomorrow but we will know we are doing great if we can keep these amazing fans quiet.”
The Blasters won six home matches in a row last season, while ATK won four games on the road. Kerala have had trouble in their fortress only against ATK - the only team to beat them in Kochi last year.