Interview with Roberto Carlos: "Lack of goals don't bother me as long as we finish in Top 4"

Three matches at home so far and the Dynamos have guarded their fortress brilliantly. After a win against Chennaiyin in their inaugural fixture here, Roberto Carlos and his team have rallied to hold North East United and Mumbai City.

With more home matches coming up, its imperative that the team maintain their momentum if they are to qualify for the knock out stages of the second season of the Hero ISL. In an interaction with the media, the gaffer shed his thoughts about the Mumbai game and the challenges that the team has been encountering.

Excerpts:

Another last minute goal fetched you a point against Mumbai. Are you satisfied with the result?

Had we lost today, it would have been the worst defeat of my life. My team was pressurizing from the beginning, we had more chances, more posession. They scored after a foul the referee didn’t see.

We noticed you fiddled with the line up upfront again. Would it be apt to say that you haven’t found your perfect combination yet?

We have way too many games at a go. Players don’t recover very fast. That’s why we have been changing. dos Santos, Vinicius have been doing everything I ask for. Its complicated. Some teams are suffering. We can see that very clearly because we are tired but we are still adding some points. Obviously the defense, I don’t need to change much because they don’t run much.

Two home matches, four points dropped. Is that a setback for you?

Again NorthEast, I wasn’t happy. But tonight I am very happy. The coach and the players always wants to win. They deserved the last minute goal, because they made a lot of part.

Is the team currently over-reliant on Florent Malouda?

Malouda is a wonderful player and there is no harm in us relying on him. My only worry is that sooner or later he might get tired. He is 30 something, that is bound to happen.

Nicolas Anelka said Mumbai came in with a defensive mindset. Are you comfortable with opposing teams doing that?

Normally when you play against a defensive team, you have to take care of the possession of the ball. To be very honest, the more important thing is my team fought very hard. I don’t care how the opponents come here to play. I am still telling my players that a little thing is missing. In a game like this, if we were focused on passing more accurately, we could have won 3-0. But we were unlucky

A word on the team’s struggles with scoring goals?

If you ask me the same question, I will give you the same answer. We still have 14 points. My goal is to finish in the top 4. As long as that happens I am fine!