Kerala Blasters: | It was amazing to see how the fans followed the semi Finals,Finals... All behind us supporting us| Werner Martens exclusive interview

 "We don't have to look at other clubs, We have to do our thing, Kerala Blasters have their own vision, we want to develop Indian players " These were the words of Kerala Blasters Fitness and Conditioning coach Werner Martens, When he was asked about clubs like ATKMB and Mumbai City investing their money to purchase established Indian players. He ensured that the club will be focusing on developing young players from the ISL and I League. The Belgian coach was a detrimental part of Kerala Blasters' road to the finals of The Indian Super League. He opens up about his experience in India to The Football Path.

1) The ISL is just 4/5 months long, and in most of the remaining months, the players are not playing any matches. Do you think the long gap in Indian football affects the players physically?

WERNER : Of course, in Europe and a lot of other continents, the competition duration is 10-11 months, so when you play 10-11 months, you play between 40 and 70  games a season. What it means is that the development of players goes faster. Here in India, you only play 20 matches, maybe when you reach the semi-finals or playoffs, you play a total of 23 matches, and also at the beginning of the tournament, if you catch a bigger injury or a muscle injury... Yea you lose half of the competition, Also when you have a 4 or 5 months tournament, with 2-months pre-season, yea that means you have a gap of 5 months, that's a lot for a lot of things for the development of the players, training process and also the fitness level of the players, what they do in the offseason... I would suggest that they play more games, more teams, more competitive games, and also, now that they have arranged the ISL reserves league So there are things that are done to increase the number of games, but the best is that they increase the number of games in ISL.

How can Indian players work on their fitness during the off-season period?

WERNER :We give the players a program to do in the offseason, it will vary a little bit according to the individuals, some players went back to their countries, while the Indian players... Work a little bit in groups of 3, where one group play and the other group rest and build-up to pre-season, We also have sent some players into the second team to play some games, to get the game rhythm to develop themselves to become a better player because you become a good player not only by training but by playing games at the good level.

Did Kerala Blasters started their pre-season preparation ?what are the plans are for next season... 

WERNER: Pre-season preparation is  in the charge of the technical director... I don't know yet, I think that in a couple of days we are gonna decide on this.

What was the mood in the camp after the loss? What did you tell the players after the match?

WERNER: Everybody was disappointed, but that's normal because the worst thing that could happen is when you lose after extra time, in penalties. For me Penalties are hard, you can train at them but it's always under different circumstances when you do it for a big crowd... The big nerves coming up... You have to be a cool killer to make the penalties. That was the only part that we didn't do well but if you look at the whole season, we could be proud, of what we achieved from the bottom of the table last season, now to almost top of the table... Every player in our squad played this season, Lots of young players made their debut, even to the national team. So overall it was a big success.

Kerala Blasters haven't bought any Indian players like ATKMB or Mumbai City, still, Kerala Blasters did better than them... How?

We don't have to look at other teams,We have to do our thing, Kerala Blasters have their own vision, we want to develop Indian players and make a good combination with foreign players who bring something extra into the team and the players so that the development of the team goes a little bit faster. This is our goal, to develop our young players and also to get some promising young players from the I league and do further development with them.

 Did any Indian player impress you?

WERNER: There are a lot of Indian players that impressed me, if we look at our own squad, we were able to give every player playing time, we developed a lot of Indian players, they developed a lot, some players also joined the national team... Not only the young players, but the older players also improved... The difference between the beginning and the end of the season is huge.

Who is the most fitness-conscious player on the team?

 WERNER:Without calling the names, If you look at the attitude of the players that I worked with this season is amazing, if you see the work attitude, in the gym, on the pitch... They work their asses off, They want to do everything to become a better player. to work with these kinds of players was very nice

What were the challenges that you had to face in India, compared to your previous clubs?

 WERNER: We had to face a lot of challenges in India but it is different in every country. I have also worked in Arabic countries, European countries... Every country has its differences, so as a foreign staff, you have to adapt to the culture. We were very flexible. I don't think of the problems, I think only about the solutions. The biggest challenge was that the players had a big off-season, and to prepare them for the season, so we started really early. we arrived at Kochi at the end of July, and we started training at the beginning of August, with a 3-month pre-season. Normally the pre-season is six, six, and a half weeks. We had to be very careful about what we do, to build up gradually, to get the players fitter and we also had to take care that we don't go too fast because we didn't want any injuries.Then we played in the Durand Cup, It was very challenging because of the external factors, ie the weather. We were there for 3 weeks, and there was a lot of rain, one time we could only train once in a whole week, we had to train in the gym because the field was under the water... So we had to adapt to a lot of situations there. But when we reached Goa, everything went smoothly. But when we arrived there, we had to stay in quarantine for 11 days, so we gave the players a program to do inside the room. We have to eat in our room, we could only go out to the balcony, there was no communication and every day, there was testing 3 times a day, that too for 5 months... But after 11 days, we could go out but it was still hard because we could only go out to the training pitch, come back, eat together and then go back to the room to sleep or watch some football games on the TV. But when the competition started, everything went faster as there were games every day and we watched them together. At that moment, it went smoothly.The third challenge was when there was when we had the covid situation in January, in the middle of the competition. We had to stay in the room for 11 days, that was really hard. Also, when you look at the fitness part of the game, we had lost almost everything. We had to build up again, at that moment we were at the top of the table... Then you had to play top games right after the training, which was challenging, we had to gamble a little bit. The result at that moment was not that important, the health of the players was important because at that moment because if they catch a big injury, without training their whole career would be over, or if they get a muscle injury, their whole season would be over, so we had to be very careful.

What are your hopes for next season?

 WERNER: We will see what will happen, nothing has been decided, yet. The coach is talking with the board at the moment, we will see what will happen, so let us wait for that.

Have you learned any Malayalam words after coming to Kerala?

WERNER: Malayalam... ehh (laughs) not yet, but if you have seen the clip on the social of our club, our coach already speaks a little bit... That's my goal, to learn some words as soon as possible, let us make a deal about this.

Have you grown to like any Kerala food?

WERNER: That's an easy question for me... Biriyani... I like biriyani so much, it's been one week in my hometown, and that's one thing that I miss about.

Do you have any message for the fans?

WERNER: It was amazing to see how the supporters followed the semi Finals, Finals... All behind us supporting us, all the messages that we get, it was amazing, what they did for us. I hope we can play in front of them  next season,with 80000 people supporting you, is a feeling that you will never forget, also in the final... More than 14000 people were in the stadium supporting us... It was amazing, I wanna give a big thank you to all the supporters of KBFC.