After storming their way to the quarterfinals of the Durand Cup 2024, fan-favourite Kerala Blasters skipper Adrian Luna hopes to navigate through various challenges, lead by example and hopefully go all the way and end the club’s decade-long wait for their first trophy.
The club has had a positive start to the tournament under the new manager Mikael Stahre from Sweden. In just three games during the group stage, the club has scored a total of 16 goals while conceding the singular goal to ease their way to the knockouts.
The 30-year-old forward Noah Sadaoui who signed for the club on a free made a stunning debut scoring a hat-trick against Mumbai City FC and currently leads the scoring charts with six goals. Ghanaian striker, Kwame Peprah is not too far behind with four goals as well.
In an interaction with News18 Sports, Luna spoke about how the team prefers playing in the 4-3-3 formation but remains flexible in changing up the structure depending on the match situation.
“We will play a 4-3-3 and we will start from this formation. But you know during the game you have to be able to change your formation because you might have to. You cannot be rigid on that. You see in the game sometimes when we press we become a 4-4-2,” said the Kerala Blasters captain in a select media interaction.
Luna has so far been pleased with the side’s ability to hold their shape both on and off possession and has been happy regarding the side’s tactical aspects under the Swede’s time as the manager.
“If you see the game, you see that we are a team that has a good shape when we don’t have the ball and when we have the ball. So I’m happy with the tactical aspects so far with the team,” he added.
Being the captain of the side comes with a lot of additional responsibilities. But Luna does not let that weigh him down as he aims to lead by example. The Uruguayan midfielder is arguably one of the key cogs for the Kerala-based club as he is a dual threat, as a playmaker and as a goal-scorer.
Just like the high standards he has set for himself, Luna also expects his teammates young or old, to perform at a similar level in every aspect of the game
Luna commented, “I think that when you are a captain, you have to be a leader of example. That means you have to be the best, the 1st and everything. When you are on the pitch, you have to be. You cannot ask your players to run if you don’t run. You cannot ask your players to be professional if you are not professional. So you have to be the leader”.
Despite being the skipper, he also looks to maintain his usual self, something he has accustomed to doing in his 14-year-long professional career.
“With both the younger and older players, I try to, you know, to be myself. I never will change myself just because I am captain now. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so it’s, it’s quite normal for me right now,” he added.
As the tournament heads towards the business end, Luna, just like every KBFC supporter, hopes that they can finally end the trophy drought and put that demon aside to focus on bigger and better things. The tournament that shares a history of over a century in Indian football could serve as the perfect backbone to help push even more success for the club.
“You can imagine, I think because for myself is very important because the club has been waiting for 10 years to get a trophy, 11 years. So it means a lot because you take this backpack out of your shoulders and it will be everything for the fans, everyone around the club as well. It will be amazing that we can achieve this, this trophy,” he concluded.
The club now await their next opponent in the quarterfinal as they hope to maintain their high-octane attacking brand of football which is proving to be a tough task for their opponents to crack open.
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