Three games, three defeats. Was that the most painful one?
It was the most deserved one. I think at the moment, more than defeats, it's performance we've got to talk about. Wins only come with performance. In terms of performance that was the most disappointing one because we were well beaten in the basics of football. It's a really good Brighton team so we must give them a lot of a credit because they're a fantastic team and they can perform like that against pretty much anyone in the league.
But we were short. A yard short, a tackle short, a fighting duel moment short and when that's not right you're not going to win games. You have to have the capacity to do that as well as the desire and at the minute we're falling short on that and need to turn it around quickly.
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Where is that coming from?
I don't think it's for me to talk about where it's come from, it's for me to try and get to the bottom of it quickly and change it. We haven't got training time, I feel like we need training time but we don't have training time. The response has to be what we see on the pitch, particularly Tuesday coming. Maybe after Tuesday we have a little breather before Brentford.
Things that are a must in a performance for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, against Brighton who can play, sprints, recovery runs and getting up to people and recovering. Then when you've get the ball to stick to ideas that you want to stick to. We came away from that today and the capacity wasn't there today. It's one for me to get into because it's my job to, I'm here for this period. It's my job to get as many, or as much improvement as I can. From that performance today, we certainly have work to do.
Who was not fit? Ruben Loftus-Cheek? Madueke?
Ruben - back. Madueke, out of the squad.
The 15th goal this season where Chelsea had given the ball away. What's wrong with them?
It's a relevant stat because it's football and if you're going to turnover the ball, teams good in transition, especially in your own half are going to punish you. I'm not sure there's an answer for it. Turning over the ball is a hard one for a coach because nobody means to turn over the ball but if you make mistakes you get punished.
You talk of being short, how much is mental versus physical?
A hard one to divide up. Through each individual there will be different elements. I think physical is work and to be a top team there's no doubt you have to be towards the top of the physical numbers in the league. We have to aspire to do that and that's an individual thing and a collective thing.
The mental side, we have to be there to support the players because I'm in it now with them. It's my responsibility as well. That's one individually to go around the group because a collective strong group only comes from the individuals amongst it. That's been the history of this club for 20 years.
For whatever reason there can be some mitigating factors at the moment with some of the change. It can't be an excuse. It just has to be a factor you fight against to get where you want to be. From today's performance it's clear. I'm not going to dress today's performance up. I don't think the players would want me to. I'm not hanging the players out to dry because I see there's talent in that room. It's the Premier League so you have to have the extra bits and we were short of those today.
Can character be fixed during the season?
Careful with this character one because it's questioning a player's character - there can be many reasons why a player may not be performing at the limit for whatever reason. I think those ones are always constants. Whether it's now because what we want now is to get a result on Tuesday and then against Brentford. We have to work on it now and then build to having a team where you're saying 'it's full of character'. There's so much to that. From my point of few, I can only be honest. I can't say 'not a bad a game, we didn't deserve to lose'. I don't think the players would expect anything else. I know, I could see it in their faces at the end of the game. The only thing that matters is the reaction. That's what matters until the end of the season, the reaction.
Who knows what that looks like. We talk about three losses, I'm thinking about performance and then wins will come. Today performance wasn't worthy of a win.
You played in a Chelsea team where teams were beaten before kick off. Are teams no longer afraid?
It might be the case but the fact is, it feels useless to hark back to the team I played in but I understand your point. Many top football clubs and we are, the last 20 years we were successful as anyone pretty much, have moments where the fear factor drops with performance. The top of my head, Liverpool a few years ago and they pulled it back and came again. Those moments where teams get a run of confidence against you, the only wait to fight that is to look within yourself to become a team that is not nice to play against.
That brings me to the physical capacity of the team and the contact level of the team. I would like to see more contact, not in a bad way, more contact today. When you're short, it's hard to make contact and that can flit through the team. Whether teams are less fearful, if they are, that should be a carrot for us to turn it around to the point where they do feel it again.
The fans morale is dripping away, what can you say to them to raise their expectations?
I'm not here to do that. What matters is what we deliver on the pitch. I don't think what I say will make the fans come and be anything else than what they normally are on a Champions League night when Real Madrid is there and it's an opportunity to try and turn something around. I don't want to go 'please come and support us positively', I know they'll do that. We have to play with that energy and fight. That's the bare minimum. Of course organisation against Real Madrid, they're a top team. It's up to us, nothing is on the fans for this one, it's up to us as a squad in terms of the game on Tuesday.
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