Kerala Blasters hope to ‘regroup’ and ‘return stronger’ after international break. Really?

Kerala Blasters are running out of excuses. On Saturday, after the club lost a fifth match to be left with just a point in the Indian Super League (ISL), head coach David Catala skipped the post-match press conference.

Instead, one of his assistants, Chandrasekhar Rao Chinta addressed the media. It was one of the shortest press conferences done by a Blasters coach in recent times, with a simple answer repeated over and again: “We can regroup and come back strong.”

It is not that the assistant coach was shy to speak, rather there isn’t much left for the staff to say as the club sits 13^th in the table of 14, only because bottom-ranking Mohammedan have played two games fewer. Technically, the Blasters are in the relegation zone.

Coach Chinta was asked if the Blasters were in danger of going down, becoming the first club to be relegated from the top division. The ISL had been immune to relegation since its inception in 2014, but at the end of the current season, the bottom-placed side will drop down to second division that is the Indian Football League (I-League), or at least that is what the All India Football Federation has claimed.

“I think we are not afraid right now (of relegation), right now we have an international break,” coach Chintha said. “I think this break is really important. I think this break will really change for us, whatever we have planned.”

Whether the break has come at an appropriate time no one can be sure of but at least the Blasters can go back to the drawing board. The international break starting March 23 will run till the 31^st. The Blasters’ next ISL match is against Sporting Club Delhi in Delhi on April 5.