| Fadhil Yunus |
DPMM FC head coach Steve Kean revealed that they had been in a ‘good place’ after seeing their five-match winning streak came to a screeching halt in the aftermath of the 2-0 Singapore League Cup final loss to Albirex Niigata (S) at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Saturday.
“Up until tonight, we’ve won the last five games so we had been in a good place. I think any neutral who was watching the game wouldn’t say- if you look at the results 2-0- it must’ve been easy. Albirex would agree it was far from easy for them,” Kean said in a post-match press conference.
“We’ve enough chances but they’re a quality side and if they get into any of their rhythm which they did after we’ve missed that chance they’re hard to get the ball off,” he continued.
“Obviously we’ve changed from having five defenders to four so there’s a little bit more space. I felt we had to do that at that stage and we come down with our last eight games with confidence because we’ve performed well in the tournament,” he said.
Kean concluded that they came really close in winning the competition for a historic fourth time.
Meanwhile, Kean’s opposite number Naoki Naruo said he could not conclude the stability of his defence after allowing the Gegar Gegar men to create a host of chances.
The Japanese has unconventionally deployed forward Kazuki Mine as a makeshift central defender illustrating the height of their three-man defence.
DPMM FC finish runners-up in the Singapore League Cup after losing 2-0 to Albirex Niigata (S) in the final. – S LEAGUE
The tactical move has been designed to nullify the discernible threat of towering DPMM FC striker Rafael Ramazotti who tends to have a knack of converting hopeful balls into goals.
“All of our three defenders are very tall so we could defend from the high balls. I think we’ve showed good defence tonight,” he said.
Having gotten the Singapore Community Shield and the League Cup under wraps, Naruo is well aware of the task in hand as they set their sights on a historic quadruple.
“I don’t think it will be easy, but we have to play our style and show our best performance,” he concluded.
Kean has also told Singapore’s The New Paper that he is currently in discussions with the club with his contract reportedly running out at the end of this term.
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