Newly appointed Delhi Dynamos manager Miguel Angel Portugal has promised to play an attractive possession style football for the upcoming fourth season of Indian Super league.
"I would want my team to play with as much as possession possible, but it must be effective possession," said Miguel, through a translator, after being unveiled by the Delhi-based franchise here on Monday. "We wouldn't play possession football for the sake of keeping possession and wasting time. Purpose should be to unbalance our opponent and score a goal."
Replacing Italian legend Gianluca Zambrotta, who took Delhi to semi-finals of ISl last season, as Dynamos manager is a tough ask. Being aware of that, Miguel prepared by watching I-league matches of the recently concluded season and felt footballers here are passionate and needs time to develop.
"After watching I-league matches recently, I found Indian footballers to be intelligent and play with lot of passion but football here is at its nascent stage and has a great potential to grow. Since cricket is the mass popular sport here, we need to be patient in nurturing it," said the ex-Real Madrid footballer and youth coach.
He has experience of managing teams in Spain's la liga - Racing Satander and Real Valladolid. "I would love to work for six-seven years here. But coaching is a demanding job as the clubs always want results. So if things go according to plan, I will be working here longer than my current contract," explained the 61-year-old manager, who has signed a year contract with the Delhi side.
After Dynamos stuck a technical partnership with Qatar-based Aspire Academy, who is known for its world-renowned sporting facilities (including coaching, training and sports science), the Delhi-based franchise decided to restart their hunt for ISl silverware by letting go all their players from last season, which included star Indian performers such as Anas Edathodika and Milan Singh. Miguel felt it was a necessary step to start things from scratch.
"It's like a new project. We are going to build the team from the scratch and we are going into the draft (to pick players) with lot of options on the table, which includes some ex-players. Our aim is to win the title and for that purpose we need to carefully pick players for every position," concluded the new Dynamos manager.