ISL 2017: Defence went to sleep, admits Teddy Sheringham after ATK's defeat against Pune

The reigning Champions ATK, who drew their first ISL 2017 match against Kerala Blasters were handed a thumping defeat in their first home game of the season, as they were defeated by 4 goals to 1 by a rejuvenated FC Pune City side.

ATK head coach Teddy Sheringham seemed pretty displeased by his side’s performances and admitted that his side went off to sleep after the second goal went in. He said “They capitalised on our mistakes, we failed to on theirs. It was a big margin in the end but it was closely fought match.”

Questions were raised about the performance of Debjit in goal especially after the second headed goal from close range,but Sheringham was vocal about how his goalkeeper wasn’t to blame and that the team should have defended better as a unit

“The first goal was a mistake defensively I can't blame him for that, even in the second goal the centre-backs have got to do better.The third goal was deflection. There’s nothing to blame Debjit for here, it happens sometimes but it's not the goalkeeper's fault. We defend and attack as a team, we went to sleep for the second goal and it all went downhill from there,” he said.

Even after the defeat the former England striker believes that there are positives to take from his side’s first-half display, but stressed on how he’s disappointed that his team fell asleep for the second goal and crumbled afterwards.

“Not happy right now. We took the game to Pune in the first half, I thought we played fantastic in the first half. But they capitalised on their opportunities,” he said. "I don't expect them to go to sleep from the set pieces or anything. You need to be ready. It was far too easy from the left. We need to better our marking,” he further added

ATK next face new boys Jamshedpur FC away from home and will be looking to bounce straight back up after registering just a single point from their first two games.