United have basically won once in the last decade at Anfield, a Wayne Rooney goal, and before that it was Juan Mata who scored twice. The fans still talk about these wins for the obvious reasons. Can you use that? Can you say that to your players, that you’ve got a chance here to really please our fans, to break this sequence or at least improve it?
“You have so many things to use with our players, like winning back-to-back games, to have that moment and that can change completely, and I felt like the game against Chelsea when we won, the week was so different. So, we have a lot of things to use with the players. I think they don’t remember those games. The football players nowadays, they don’t watch many games, unfortunately. So, we have so much to use, that is not the hardest part. We have so much to win if we perform, if we win the next game, that I don’t need to use those games in the past. We just need to try to show them what that could bring for our future.”
At Anfield, in English, we say it can be a bit of a ‘bear pit’, the atmosphere there’s quite involved. Are you confident your players can thrive and use that positive energy?
“We showed last year. And I think the way we start the game is more important than the environment. The environment can change. Of course, they will win a corner, an opportunity. The environment is going to be loud, but we are ready to play with that. And if you looked last year, not this year, but last year, sometimes we play better in that kind of environment than the pressure at home. So, we never know what is going to happen. It’s really important to start the game well, to do a really good warm-up, to have a feeling, to understand that it’s going to be tough in the first moments. So, I think – I know – they are ready, but we need to prepare for the impact, especially for the beginning of the game.”
Do you really think players don’t watch as many games now as they used to?
“No, I think that is normal. Everything now is different with a lot of distractions. I think they don’t watch a lot of games. You have guys like Bruno. Bruno is watching his team-mates and [when] he plays. He watches every game that is on TV. But then you have some guys that play really well, [and then] they want to do something different, that’s okay.”
