Eye on play-off spot, says Chennaiyan FC coach Gregory

THE FORMER ENGLAND PLAYER SAID HE WAS HAPPY WITH THE GROUP OF PLAYERS CHENNAIYIN HAD AND THERE WAS A BALANCE TO IT

CHENNAI: Chennaiyin FC coach John Gregory on Friday said the team had a good pre-season ahead of the fourth season of Indian Super League, adding the first target will be to make the play-offs.

“The pr e-season has been very good. But it is all about what happens on Sunday. We always set targets that are reachable. The first target is a position in the play-offs,” he said, referring to team’s first game against Goa on November 19.

“I have got a fantastic group of players. It takes a few weeks to get a good understanding on the field. We have been working hard and played a lot of matches. I learnt a lot from the matches. All start son Sunday. That is when it matters ,” he added. He said rain in Chen nai made it difficult to train and the team spent a week in Pu ne, where facilities were excellent.

“When we got together, November 19 seemed a long way ahead of us. We had suffered a little bit because of the weather. We spent over a week in Pune, because of the slightly better weather and training facilities,” he said.

The former England player said he was happy with the group of players Chennaiyin had and there was a balance to it .“Domestic players always lookup to the foreign players for guidance. We have a lot of young players in Chennaiyin as you know. There is a really good balance and training has been great. The camaraderie has been good .”

Dwelling on the poor show in last year’s ISL, Gregory said it was a bad one but hoped for better times. “I’m following a legend (Marco Materazzi) here. He is a tough act to follow and we hope to have a good season. It was a bad year last for our club. But we set such high standards in the first and second years. It was disappointing to finish 7th,” he said.