ISL 2020-21 feature: How Hyderabad FC turned it around

Chennai, January 21: Hyderabad FC are now sitting pretty in top four after consecutive victories in the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) campaign’s second leg of fixtures.

Hyderabad are currently perched fourth in the ISL table with 17 points from the 12 games played so far.

They are nine points off the top of the table, held by Mumbai City FC.

ISL POINTS TABLE | RESULTS | FIXTURES

It is hard to believe that this same Hyderabad team finished at the rank bottom of the ISL table in the last season.

Under performing players was one of the reasons for their poor show last season.

Varun Tripuraneni, the co-owner of the franchisee, had some words to say on his club's transformation this season.

"When we put together the new franchise, we knew it was going to be a challenge both on and off the pitch. We hardly had any time to work on our training pitches. So, we just had to get through the season and didn't really have many expectations as to where we want the team to finish. Obviously, we didn’t want to finish at the bottom which is where we eventually did. So, yes it was a challenge," he said.

Varun, the former CEO of another ISL franchise -- Kerala Blasters FC -- described how the club took it one step at a time to make their presence felt in the league.

"It's really difficult to think about the changes and the strategies that the club had to undergo to take on the challenge of competing with the heavyweights in the tournament and claim a name for themselves. At Hyderabad, the entire club took the weights on their shoulders and this led to where they're at the moment."

Speaking about the managerial changes that were made, Varun said that the former head coach, Phil Brown was sacked due to the poor results last season and that they still share a good rapport and discuss about the games whenever possible.

Adding to this, Varun elaborated on the decision to bring in someone like Albert Roca. "Albert had good experience in India, he knows ISL and players fairly well. It was the decision we needed to take in the interest of the club," he said.