ISL 2022-23: An important point against a very good team: Mumbai City FC’s Des Buckingham

Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham was satisfied after sharing the spoils with Hyderabad FC following their 1-1 draw at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai on Saturday. Buckingham made four changes to the team’s playing XI but he was happy with the team’s spirited performances despite the changes.

Jorge Diaz scored the opening goal through a penalty for the hosts and the table-toppers were able to dominate the first half. However, the visitors bounced back in the second half as Hitesh Sharma found the back of the net for them.

This result ended Mumbai City FC’s 11-match winning streak. The Islanders took four shots on target while the Nizams could only manage a solitary attempt on target.

“We’ve had three or four changes to our team again this week, to perform the way we did, which I see very similar things to what I have done in the last 16 or 17 games now, that was very pleasing because it shows that regardless of the changes, we make the players understand what we’re trying to do, and regardless who we put in there, they’re capable,” Buckingham said in the official post-match press conference.

He added: “We deserved to go into half-time with the lead. For the second half, they started better than we did. And I think they had one shot on goal for the whole game on target and then scored it. We tried everything we could in the second half. We created as many chances as we could, we just couldn’t find the winner. But overall, in terms of performance with the changes that we’ve had to make, from what I’ve just seen in terms of performance, very happy with it. It’s an important point against a very good team, who are also challenging up there with us. So it just puts us in a stronger position for the final three matches.”

Meanwhile, Mumbai City FC has conceded 15 goals in the tournament, which is the joint-second lowest. Buckingham added that the team wants to win back the ball as soon as possible.

“It’s part of our game plan. Out of possession, we want to be a team that if we can, I want to win the ball back as far up the field as we can. The work rate and the desire that the players cover defensively is very good, so much better than last year. Whether we need to go on press or whether we sit in our compact block at some point in the midfield or we dropped deeper to defend our goal, it’s a real desire this year to make sure that we don’t concede not just goals, but shots on our goal. We need to be a lot better defensively than we were last year and so far this year, I’m very happy with that progress,” Buckingham said.

The English manager is also happy with the progress his team has made from the start of the season.

“I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made from the first to the 17th match. Now the best thing that we can do is just make sure that we get ready for FC Goa. We just need to make sure that we continue to give performances that get results and we’ll do that against FC Goa next week,” Buckingham concluded.