Bengaluru perfecting tiki taka, says Juan

BENGALURU: Spanish defender Juan Antonio González Fernández, popularly known as Juanan, said here on Thursday that I-league champions Bengaluru FC is slowly perfecting the tiki-taka style under Spanish coach Albert Roca.
The towering player (6'3"), who loves to score goals like the one he netted against Johor in the AFC Cup last season, said most of the top teams are following the Spanish style of play."Yes. (We are) . I think many teams in the world are following the Spanish style of play - touch, hold and keep possession of the ball, which is basically tiki-taka. Many teams play this way because it leads to beautiful football," the Mallorcan told reporters here.
Juan said he is attuned to his coach's style. "I have never worked with Roca before. I met him the first day I started training here. His mentality is good. Touch, go, run and get the ball. This is the football and it's the Spanish style of football which I am familiar with," he added.
The defender said the target before the Blues now is to defend the I-league. "It is going to be tough but that is the target. We are also trying to qualify for the AFC Champions League," said Juan who played a key-part in BFC's progress to the AFC Cup final in Doha.
"I was very happy with that goal (against JDT in the AFC Cup semifinals last year), the first for my club and because it was an important game. More important than me getting the goal was that we qualified for the final. If I score a great goal and we don't make the next round then it means nothing. But we made the final and that's crucial for me.
"Even in the final we played well. We made a couple of changes in the second half but no big deal. The changes were effected for winning the game. They scored and then we played with three defenders to go for the attack. We are comfortable playing with three defenders in other situations also," Juan recalled the narrow defeat in the final to Air Force club of Iraq.
The Spaniard, who earlier played in Europe and North America, said he was impressed by the standard of top Indian players and felt the experience of foreigners will help them improve. "They are all very good. I have never played with Indians before coming here. The lot here, I think, are good," he said refusing to name any Indian player who had impressed him.
"I have played in many teams and have had experiences in the Spanish second division, Germany and other countries. I'm 29 now and with enough exposure. It's important that I share my experience with this team," he said.
After starting in Mallorca. Juan went to Deportivo La Coruna. "It was my first professional contract. Then to Real Madrid Castilla. I had a two-month training with the first team. First with (Manuel) Pellegrini and then (Jose) Mourinho. With Mourinho I played two games (pre-season) and then I went to Germany initially into the second division and to the first division the next year. I was then in Hungary for a year and came back to Spain and I played for Recreativo Huelva and Leganes. After that I went to Oklahoma."