ISL 7: My job is to make sure players don’t feel too low, says Baxter

Bengaluru FC piled on further misery on Odisha with a 2-1 win on Thursday. Cleiton Silva (79') scored the match-winner for Bengaluru after Steven Taylor (71') had cancelled out Sunil Chhetri (38') first-half lead for the Blues

Bambolim: Odisha FC coach Stuart Baxter believes that his job is to keep players motivated for the upcoming games after remaining winless in the six matches of the ongoing Indian Super League.

Bengaluru FC piled on further misery on Odisha with a 2-1 win on Thursday. Cleiton Silva (79′) scored the match-winner for Bengaluru after Steven Taylor (71′) had cancelled out Sunil Chhetri (38′) first-half lead for the Blues, who remained unbeaten in their six matches this season.

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“Inexperience in itself is not costing us. What happens is that when you have got young players and the young players are being led by other young players, the foreigners are basically the experienced ones. So it doesn’t cost you until you feel anxious and uncertain. It is my job to make sure they aren’t too low. The period where we are losing concentration, is that inexperience? Maybe. But I’ve got to believe we can put that one right,” Baxter said in the post-match conference.

Odisha boss further stated that his team has run out of luck in some matches and he has a difficult job at hand to make his players turn things around.

“You have got a young group who are almost playing very well but luck is not on their side and they are losing confidence and concentration every game. To keep them believing in what they are doing is very difficult. To give them the tactical edge they need to turn these sob stories into happy stories, you don’t have a lot of time because of the situation we are in. So it is difficult and that is a job we have in front of us,” said the manager.

Brazilian attacker Marcelinho once again did not get to start the game and Baxter suggested that he did not get what he expected from the experienced footballer.

“They (Bengaluru) are the biggest team in the league. To get Marcelinho on to the field it meant taking out one of our main players. That is why I didn’t want to put him on because I was putting Nandha (Sekar) on as Manuel Onwu was injured and then to take Diego Mauricio off as well would have meant we would have been very short on what is their strong suit and that is set-plays. So Marcelinho going on, he was there to show burst, he can give us something, unfortunately, he didn’t give us anything,” Baxter said.