ISL: We are not under pressure, says SC East Bengal coach Robbie Fowler

Smarting from a hat-trick of defeats in their maiden ISL season, SC East Bengal coach Robbie Fowler on Wednesday said the team is not under pressure and a win is round the corner.

SC East Bengal will on Thursday take on a resurgent Jamshedpur FC who halted ATK Mohun Bagan’s three-match winning run with a 2-1 victory.

“It’s not an ideal situation. We want to win games, we don’t want to lose. But success does not come overnight. We have to be realistic and understand that we came late. There is no pressure on myself, no pressure on the players,” Fowler said.

Former East Bengal players have recently criticised the performance of the Fowler-coached side but he remained unperturbed and urged them to support the club.

 

“At the moment we don’t need negative energy. It does not bother me, I can undo it but the players need positive energy — lots of positivity.

“All those former players who claim to have done the best for the club, let’s get behind everyone. The more people get behind, the better they will be.”

“This is not an ideal situation. At the end we got to remember it’s all about the club. I just hope it’s not political statements from former players.”

The Liverpool legend maintained that they have been decent so far in the tournament, only missing out on the chances to score goals.

In their previous game against NorthEast United FC, SC East Bengal dominated the match statistics in terms of ball possession (57%-43%), passing accuracy (74%-59%), number of successful passes (398-186), number of crosses (20-12), number of touches (638-490) and number of corners won (8-2).

However, the Highlanders got two timely goals in each half to seal the contest 2-0 and bag their second win of the season.

“We know that we are trying. We are building something, take the club where it should be. We will do what we can do. We have not been outclassed. We know we can compete,” he said.

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