Experienced coach Derrick Pereira’s mantra to players of Goa football team at the National Games is simple “stay together", support each other on and off the field.
“We stay together, that's a mantra we are going to play together and we defend together and we attack together and we you know we should be there for each other whether on the pitch or off the pitch and I think that will help us to get to the Next round,” said the former India international.
Derrick who was also at the helm of affairs for the Santosh trophy which qualified from the preliminary group for the final phase of the championship will not be with the services of some of the key players including key striker Trijoy Dias who will be representing their clubs in the I-League.
“I mean we were supposed to have the same team to play in the National games but because of the AIFF coming up with the Third Division I-League, so teams had to withdraw their players and we had to replace 10 players from the squad which played in the Santosh Trophy,” added the former Salgaocar defender.
The experienced tactician knows he has a huge task at hand but is ready for the challenges which go along with.
“It's a difficult job but I take it up as a challenge and as we have to start all over again you know to build a team and in this short time it's tough but I'm very happy with the player’s attitude and the way they are working hard,” he added.
He complimented his support staff for the work they are doing on the players to keep them in good shape ahead of the event.
“Support staff is working very hard to keep them fit and help them to recover immediately after training. The competition is such that in 48 hours we have to play the next game so the focus is more on recovery of course."
“We work hard on the pitch and then we have to take care of the recovery part too.”
On Wednesday morning the Goa team played their first match and Derrick said he had a few concerns in the striking department but was optimistic that things will fall in place.
"After our first test match,we need to improve in attack. Defensively we are good, we are well organized but going up front we have to improve and of course we had some chances which we could finished. We need to improve on our attacking third there are lot of young players all in their 20s and additionally there are some experienced players in the defense as well as in the midfield but we need going forward we have play the better,” he added.
