Karim Bencherifa, speaking after Pune FC’s 2-0 defeat to Mohun Bagan in a round nineteen I-League encounter at the Shree Chhatrapati Balewadi Sports complex, Pune, explained the reasons behind his team suffering yet another loss on home soil.    

Quizzed on the reasons as to why his team lost, he explained, “If you look at the game we missed out on competing in a few departments. They won almost all the 50-50 balls. They’re a very physical side with the back four and that midfield with Denson (Devadas) and Sehnaj (Singh), they made life difficult for us physically. Besides that we didn’t look that bad going forward. They were clinical. They got a few chances and finished them. Besides that I think it was a close battle.”

He further added, “We always go for a win and never park the bus. We always try to play good football and win. When we lose we are disappointed. This is the second defeat (Pune lost 2-0 to Bengaluru FC earlier) in a week or so and of course, we are not happy. After we beat Royal Wahingdoh, we had a break and I hoped that we didn’t lose the momentum we had gained. I welcome the break now as I think we have two weeks to play East Bengal and I think the boys really need a break to recuperate. So they will try to find new resources and energy to face the end of the season. It’s tough but we need to do it.”   

On Injuries wrecking havoc to his season’s run-in, the coach differed in his response and stated politely, “To be honest I don’t think there was anything major for this match. Ishfaq Ahmed was out and we missed a few players. But nothing too major, to tell you the truth.”

“Well as I said from the physical aspect, yes. There were moments when 50-50 balls were won by them. If you look at our midfield we had players like Ryuji Sueoka and Edgar (Marcelino) who are quality players, yet diminutive. Fanai Lalrempuia was my best player tonight with his creativity, yet he is not too physical,” he revealed on his side's inability to compete with their finessed opponents, Bagan.

It must be remembered that despite the two goal loss, Pune FC were accused of school boy defending, with the inability to clear off the line itself, in the opening few minutes which a major reason as to why they conceded early. Bencherifa, for that answer as well, expressed his opinion loquaciously, bringing out the facts.

“Yes. I’ve said it before. In the I-League the goals are scored at the beginning and at the end of a game. Bengaluru FC have scored eight goals in the last 15 minutes and five goals in the last five minutes. So we wanted to avoid this dangerous situation.

"We didn’t want to make the same mistakes we did in the last game. So we initially refused to play the ball out of defense and build from the back, so as not to provoke a Mohun Bagan attack. So in the first ten minutes, the message was no build up from the back for the first ten minutes only. It was a tactic to try to win the long ball with Darko Nikac and win every second ball after that. But we conceded again. It was a lapse of concentration and it happens in every team. They capitalized on them mistakes. That’s it,” replied the veritable ex-Salgaocar coach, with whom he won the league.