‘I want to be very aggressive in attack,’ Kerala Blasters new head coach David Catala

Kerala Blasters' new head coach, David Catala, has promised the fans to play aggressive football. The Spaniard, who completed his first training session with the Kochi-based club this week, will get a taste of competition at the Super Cup later this month.

The Blasters have not won a major trophy since its inception in 2014. Catala did not promise to deliver silverware instantly, but he vowed to produce a team that would ‘fight for everything’. “We're going to have the maximum ambition to get the Super Cup, at least to compete in all the games,” Catala told the club's internal production.

"I want to be very aggressive in attack and be very protagonist with the ball. But the most important things is the commitment and sacrifice of the players.”

Catala succeeds T G Purushothaman, who was in an interim position following the sacking of Swede Mikael Stahre in mid-December. His reign comes at the end of a difficult ISL campaign that saw the Blasters miss out on the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. They finished the league phase in eighth place with just eight wins from 24 matches.

Before this season, the Blasters had made it a habit to reach the knockout stages, especially under Ivan Vukomanovic, who met the objective for three seasons in a row, including once in the final. The Blasters were ISL runners-up on three occasions.

Though Catala is on a one-year contract with the Blasters, the club should extend based on the team's performance in the ISL next season. But a good result in the upcoming Super Cup will do a world of good for the coach and the club.