Ever since you came here, performance levels have sometimes been up and down. Today was very good. How do you ensure you get this kind of performance against Brentford next Saturday?
“It’s the urgency, it’s that feeling of we need to win. Because the situation is so hard in this moment that we go to the pitch and that feeling of there is not two results or three results, there is one. Let’s do it. In the end, we can do it or not. But that feeling of urgency that is not about the tactical aspects or abilities, the feeling that we go to the next game, we need to win the next game, so that is the only way. That starts in the next training, not the next game.”
Has the Pope been in contact?
“[laughing] No, [Sir] Jim [Ratcliffe] was here also. No, it was a joke. You like it guys so don’t complain! [laughs] You love it. Let’s try to win the next one, I will give you another one next week.”
When you talk about complicating things, does that show maybe the pressure that the players are feeling that they’re trying to do things that are a little bit too much – such as making a tackle that they shouldn’t?
“It’s hard to say. With Casemiro, that’s the pressure. The guy has five Champions Leagues. I feel more pressure in some young guys sometimes. But maybe it’s because Casemiro cares – we scored one and then he has that tackle. Then they have maybe one time that they passed the half of the pitch and we want to win the ball right away. So I think sometimes it’s a little bit, not the pressure, they want it too much in that moment. That is not a bad thing.”
Is the move that led to Chelsea’s red card something you’ve been working on to benefit from Bryan Mbeumo’s runs in behind?
“It’s everything together. We know that Ben[jamin Sesko] is really strong on the first touch and also Bryan is something that we see the characteristics of the player playing for the last team. You can feel it – every detail, every run, every touch – Bryan is really aggressive in these runs. We want that, we want to use the good things that he had for his former club. But those characteristics are really important for us and also in the second half, when we kick the ball, Ben was not there and we miss that a little bit. They did a good job. Let’s move to the next one.”
