'In India It's Always Difficult': Mumbai City FC Coach Petr Kratky Reveals Plan To Defend ISL Title

Mumbai City FC established ir dominance in Indian Football when y beat Mohun Bagan SG 3-1 in finals of ISL 2023-24 to be crowned Champions of India's premier football division for a second time in ir history. 

Mumbai City will be kickstarting ir title defence in a finals rematch against Mohun Bagan at Salt Lake Stium on September 13th. Ahe of start of new ISL season, Mumbai City FC have a mammoth task at ir hands. In history of ISL, no team has ever defended ir title and Mumbai City aim to become first team to achieve historic feat. 

However, Mumbai City FC he coach Petr Kratky doesn't think it's going to be easy and in a select media interaction, he reveals what it will take for his side to emerge as Champions once again in 2025. 

Petr Kratky mits difficult ro to title defence 

Mumbai City are certainly one of favourites heing into new ISL season but according to coach Petr Kratky defending title is in no way going to be easy given league's history. 

However, Petr Kratky and Mumbai City have a plan to create history. In a select media interaction, Petr Kratky revealed to Republic World that key behind successful title defence will be creating a winning environment and to keep players hungry throughout season. 

“It's all about creating an environment, we create an environment here in Mumbai City that people are hungry. Every time we sign player, every time we sign a star we ask m same question why are you here in Mumbai City? Why are you here in India? It's very important for me to understand players want to play football, want to win and want to achieve. We have some obligation towards fans and football and I always remind players in every meeting that we are here to play football and make everyone proud,” revealed Petr Kratky to Republic World. 

Petr Kratky furr said that season will be filled with ups and down but environment right now is of high demand. 

“ environment we create in Mumbai City it's an environment where people want to play, regardless of who y play again and y want to win. Also we have lot of competition in squ which can bring all sort of competitiveness and players want to play more and y want to play longer…We will see how season goes, you always have ups and down, we will work behind scene intensity to maintain but at moment, environment is high demand and we'll keep m moving forward,”  Petr Kratky told Republic World. 

"This winning mentality is all about environment we create here in Mumbai City. players who want to be here, who want to play for this club or for this country, in this country will make football better. players want to be here, y want to fight, y want to play to keep competitiveness and emotion's right pathway, it's now easy" - Petr Kratky, He Coach, Mumbai City FC

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Will away games be a disvantage?

Mumbai City have got a tough schedule at start of season as y will be facing heavy hitters in Mohun Bagan, Jamshedpur FC and Bengaluru FC to start season. Three of ir first four games are going to be played away from home.

Petr Kratky doesn't necessarily see that as a disvantage as he believes y have enough quality to navigate scheduling and come away with good results.

“Look, start of season is very important for everyone because it's not a long season. It's actually quite short. I think re's disvantage and vantage. Obviously we want to play in front of our fans but at end of day, you know schedule is re and I don't think it's that big disvantage for us to play away. I think our performance will still be good because we have quality and we work hard to get better and better,” said Petr Kratky. 

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Petr Kratky furr said that playing away in India is really tough due to away fans but says it can work out well for m as y will play more home games at crunch end of season. 

“When we play away in India it's always difficult because of fans but, I don't think we would be too scared to play away. Obviously, it will all change because at end of season we will be at home and will play a lot of home games. And we're excited because of fans and we would like to show m how we can play”, ded Kratky. 

Mumbai City will play ir first home game of season on 2nd October, 2024 when y host Bengaluru FC. Mumbai City certainly enter as favourites to win ISL but will y have enough to become first team to defend ir ISL Crown?