Chennaiyin targeting play-off spots first

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 pre-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 at a press meet, referring to team’s first game against Goa on November 19 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

“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. Results don’t mean a great deal. I learnt a lot from the matches that we played All starts on Sunday. That On young players and training

is when it matters,” he added

He said rain in Chennai over the past few weeks made it difficult to train and the team spent a week in Pune, where facilities were excellent.

“When we got together some six weeks ago, November 19 seemed a long way ahead of us. We had suffered a little bit because of the weather here in Chennai. We spent over a week in On pre-season

Pune, because of the slightly better weather and training facilities. It has been a great pre-season for us,” he said.

He also said the team had played a pre-season game against another ISL outfit FC Pune City a few days ago, which finished 2-2.

“We played against Pune City a few days ago. It was a pre-season game offered to us. I was a little nervous about playing against them ahead of the tournament. At the end of the day it was important to play. We certainly got a lot out of it,” Gregory 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 look up 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,” he added.

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.

CHENNAI: Domestic players always look up to the foreign players for guidance. We have a lot of young players and training has been great. It was an opportunity for me and the players to get accustomed to one another. Generally it has been an enjoyable period. Real work starts Sunday