Players need more pride when playing for India: Manolo Marquez
'I feel the players can arrive with more pride. Pride to play in the national team,' Marquez commented. But he was quick to clarify that this was not the primary reason behind their recent failures.NO CORE GROUP OF PLAYERSAs far as mistakes were concerned, Marquez admitted the lack of direction in what he had intended as compared to what transpired. This is about his first press conference, where he admitted that he wanted to work with a core group of players, something he never had during his stint.There were mistakes, he said. If you call 49 players in five FIFA windows, it means you never found the correct group. So, it's more about me,' he admitted.He even defended the decision to bring back Sunil Chettri to the national side. Marquez wholeheartedly believed that Chettri still had the minerals to lead the frontlines after seeing his performances in the Indian Super League. During this time, the national team was in dire need of an attacking threat, too. So it was only natural to consider the all-time great.'It was risky, yes. But we had problems in finding goals, and he was scoring in the ISL. He had a chance against Bangladesh, and if he had scored, everything would have changed. Now, everyone can say that it was a mistake, and I need to accept that. But I think that was not a mistake. He is a top professional and I was very satisfied to be able to count on him,' he said.- Ends
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