ISL: Pep Munoz sets his sights high for Bengaluru FC | Football News

BENGALURU: Former ISL champions Bengaluru FC will start the new season with renewed vigour to fight for the title having signed a few key players. After an extended pre-season, and still in the market to sign a few more, BFC coach Pep Munoz promised that the Blues will fight all the way.“Our target is always to play good football, implement our game style and try to fight for all the trophies this season and especially make our fans proud of what they see on the pitch,” Munoz told TOI here on Tuesday.“The target is to be on the top and that’s the mentality that we have. We are building a new identity, we are building a game style and we want to go step by step. We cannot say that at the end we will be there (on top), but we can promise that we will fight to be there,” the coach said when told that BFC won the title back in 2018-19.“We know we have strong competitors in this league and we’ve seen that last season also. I want us to be as competitive as we can and then go game by game. I have full confidence in the work that the guys are doing and especially in how consistent we can be during the season.”The coach’s push to be title contenders will be boosted by two new foreign recruits — defender Sandro Embalo (Portugal) and winger Borja Martinez (Spain) — and he was excited about the new entrants. “We know what they can add to the team. Sandro is an experienced defender with a background in Indonesia, which is a league that is at a better level. Also he’s a leader and so he can give us that experience on the back line. And Borja is a talented player. It’s his first season out of Spain. He can add quality between lines and is really good in set pieces. Also, he can play in different positions in the front.”Aware of the lack of depth that troubled BFC in the truncated last season, Munoz said: “The squad that we have now is more competitive than last season. We have more numbers. We have almost two players in each position and so we have a better balanced squad this season. Also, the market is still open. So we are still working on that. Last season, we didn’t have a deep bench.”The Spaniard, who had previously worked with Barcelona FC, said the team will benefit from the experience of Sunil Chhetri and ‘keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. “With their experience they are leaders. They are leaders of this team and they have a huge impact. They are always ready to train, ready to compete and to be the best version to help the team. They are an example for the next generations.

BFC coach Pep Munoz

“Sunil’s experience will be very important in some games. His position is one that some foreigners can cover but I also see him in different positions on the front so he can help the team from different places. I’m pretty sure that when he will be on the pitch he will give everything like he has always done.”The coach was aware of the gap left by Rahul Bheke’s departure, but sounded confident of plugging the gap before the season starts. “Rahul is not with us, but we will have Sandro. Also, as I said, the market is still not closed. Plus we have really good young players in that position like Ricky (Meetei) and other ones are coming up like Bungson (Singh).”Munoz thanked the legion of BFC fans for their unwavering support and promised to make them proud. “Our fans understand football, they love football, they like that their team practices good football and also wins games. What we want is that they should be proud of us every game that they see. And I think that this season we have a good squad to compete for the trophy and this is what I’m expecting.”“I’m excited for this season to see them again and to show them what we want to build here and how we want to win the games and to make them proud of us. We know we need the support. We will push, we will fight, and we will compete for the trophy.”

Why Spain’s football’s superpower?

I was coaching at FC Barcelona for four years and a half. In Spain, at all the academies in all the small towns and big cities, we all try to understand football in the same way. So that means that we have this relation with the ball and with the teammates all the time. So we are not focusing on the individuals, we are focusing on the team. It’s a question of how we move the ball and how we play with the balls. You can go to a training session of a U-10 team in a small village and you will see that the kind of exercises that they are doing are these kinds of exercises that they are doing in Barca or in Madrid.And the most important thing is that we believe that we make the kids have fun. And the teams build their identity in possession. In all the leagues in Spain and especially the national team, we were able to show it in this World Cup. We didn’t have big stars, but as a collective we played really well. And in 2010, the last World Cup that we won, we had stars, but also the game style that we played was the same.