Khalid Jamil’s three-win formula on the road

by Kaushal Shukla February 5, 2016

A series of positive results on home turf has seen Mumbai FC coast nicely to the fourth position in the table. With a game in hand, Khalid Jamil’s men’s position in the I-League charts could make a different reading provided they secure the full quota of points from their next assignment in the competition. The next test takes Mumbai FC away from home comforts as they make the short trip to Pune to take on debutants DSK Shivajians.

Away trips haven’t yielded the same results as home matches for Mumbai FC in the past and the gaffer spoke about the need to change those statistics. Mumbai FC only lost four games on the road last season, but could only manage one win. Coach Khalid Jamil stressed on the need to convert the five draws into wins in order to make a serious claim for the top spots. “I feel improvement is needed in our away form. Recently we haven’t done too badly, but we need to convert the draws into wins,” Khaild Jamil told the Mumbai FC media team as he prepared his side for the second away game of the season.

The coach suggested the need to win at least three games away from home to have any chance of finishing in the top spots in this league. “I feel we need to win at least three wins away from home this season. Anything below that will make it difficult for us to move up the table,” assessed Khalid Jamil.

If you look at the numbers from last season, it seems Khalid Jamil has done his calculations well in terms of setting a target for the number of away wins they need. Mohun Bagan who won the championship last season, won exactly three games away from the Salt Lake Stadium.

Khalid Jamil cautioned his players ahead of the DSK Shivajians clash as he spoke with great respect about Mumbai FC’s opponents on Sunday. “Away games are never easy. Even though DSK Shivajins is a new team, they have a lot of experienced players in their side. We will need to keep our level of performance up if we want to beat this DSK Shivajians team,” added Khalid Jamil.

Mumbai FC will play DSK Shivajians on Sunday in an evening kick-off. The game will be Mumbai FC’s second away game of the campaign and after a 0-0 draw in Shillong Khalid Jamil will be hoping to get the first of his three targeted away victories against a struggling DSK Shivajians side.