Goa Khabar: Manolo Marquez, speaking in his first press conference since being announced as FC Goa\u2019s new head coach, sounded upbeat about the upcoming 2023-24 season, as he takes over the reins of the Gaurs after three successful years with Hyderabad FC.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve taken a detailed look into the squad; we\u2019ve discussed things to improve with the Club\u2019s management. While I cannot tell you the details yet, I know that we\u2019ll field a good team, and enjoy a good season,\u201d said the 54-year-old in an online interaction with journalists on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou need a balanced team that can play more than one style of football. If we are able to do this, then we can hope to do well in the league. As of now, we have the pre-season period to work on this, then we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n The Spaniard, who lifted the ISL trophy with the Nizams in 2021-22, is no stranger to success, having also led them to two successive playoffs. He, however, stayed away from any comparisons with his previous club as he gears up to take the charge at FC Goa.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re starting work in a new club, you cannot compare that with your previous jobs. For me, FC Goa is a new chapter, a new assignment and I\u2019m starting afresh. We would like to start training as soon as possible with the new season now beginning, and we would like to take things from there in a step-by-step fashion,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Manolo Marquez also revealed how the Club\u2019s philosophy and playing style had a role in him accepting Goa\u2019s offer, despite receiving interest from other teams in the league.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSome coaches say they have a fixed style of play while some say that they have to adapt to the players. To me, I feel it’s a mix. FC Goa\u2019s players are already adapted to a style of play and I will work with them to improve on it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAbout the philosophy, I think FC Goa\u2019s importance on youth development and attacking football are something that most teams would want to emulate. It\u2019s good that we already have it,\u201d he further added.<\/p>\n The tactician was asked about the rise in quality of the league as well, with most teams already hard at work preparing for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think about this every year. Ahead of my first year here in India, at Hyderabad, I didn\u2019t know much about Indian football. But since then, I\u2019ve seen how teams build during the off-season and pose stronger challenges next time,\u201d stated Marquez.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFC Goa, for instance, has been no different, having stayed within the top-six for practically the whole 2022-23 season after finishing ninth in the previous year.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you ask me, there are two teams who are clearly above the rest of the lot – Mumbai City and Mohun Bagan SG, who are like Barcelona and Real Madrid in Indian football. However, the other teams follow close behind, and often do equally well, like in the last season where only the bottom two teams dropped out of the playoffs race earlier than usual.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFC Goa can beat any team in the ISL – be it in home or away conditions. This year, we will try to build a very competitive team by improving on what we already have, and our aim is to definitely compete for the top honours,\u201d Manolo Marquez concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Goa Khabar: Manolo Marquez, speaking in his first press conference since being announced as FC Goa\u2019s new head coach, sounded upbeat about the upcoming 2023-24 season, as he takes over the reins of the Gaurs after three successful years with Hyderabad FC. \u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve taken a detailed look into the squad; we\u2019ve discussed things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25169,"featured_media":90189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3745,155],"tags":[3794],"class_list":["post-90188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-155","tag-featured"],"read":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90190,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90188\/revisions\/90190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goakhabar-com.preview.jikut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/02.06.jpg\")
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<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\u2018FC Goa can beat any team in the ISL\u2019<\/h3>\n