HYDERABAD: India began their new chapter under new coach Manolo Marquez on a disappointing note after playing a goalless draw against lowly-ranked Mauritius in the Intercontinental Cup at the GMC Balayogi Athletics Stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
But India’s centre-back Chinglensana Singh said the lack of time for preparations were the main reason behind the result.Speaking on Wednesday, the Manipuri lad said that they will take time to gel together as a team and once they settle down, they will produce good results.
“We assembled here on 1st September and had a couple of training sessions. Even though we have a lot of good players in the country, we still take time to gel together and start scoring. But we tried our best. It’s a process. It takes time and we’ll work in training and we’ll keep improving. And then eventually when it clicks, it’ll be beautiful and we’ll start winning more matches,” he said.
For Chinglensana too, the math marks a comeback of sorts as he returned to the national side after a gap of one and half year. He last played for the Blue Tigers in March 2023.
He is also one of the few players in the Indian side that has the experience of training with the 55-year-old Spaniard Marquez when he coached the Hyderabad FC club. Chinglensana has been part of the side and working with him in the past did help him in training, he added. “Well, it definitely helps to understand his system from a long time and how he wants his team to play, so that really helped. This is a new team with a lot of young boys as well. So we all have to understand the system and the style and once we adapt to that, everything will come naturally, the goals and all. So yeah, we believe in the system and we’ll keep working.”
With five days left before their next fixture against Syria on September 9, he feels they will put on a better performance. “The boys want to win every game that we play for the country, be it Syria or Mauritius. Against Mauritius, we couldn’t but we are more hungry to win the next game. There are a lot of positives as well. We kept the ball, we dominated possession. Our preparation will be to understand more about the coach’s system and the style and then to execute that in the games with more confidence.”