Jesse, it didn't really click for your side today, what did you make to what you saw out there?
First half I thought Brighton was much more on top of the game, forcing mistakes on us and making it difficult but second half I thought it was different. Second half I thought we pushed them more. We played more in their end.
We were not creating as many clear chances as I would have liked us to but certainly we were we changed the way we played. We changed our strategy, and we push the game more. Maybe Luis’ goal goes in or we have another little bit of a moment where we're a little bit cleaner and clearer when we're in the box and we make a final action, we get the lead and maybe the feeling in the game is totally different. One thing we know, after Chelsea there was a lot of fanfare on the performance but what this league is every match is a little different.
Every opponent is a little different but every opponent is very good. I think that Brighton, certainly in the first half, really strategically managed the match much better than we did and then made it difficult for us to find the game at all, but I thought second half, again, that we did okay.
Read more: Leeds United player ratings as Struijk, James and Harrison struggle in typical Brighton display
You mentioned cleaner and clearer, do you think decision making in those key moments let you down a little bit?
It was not just that, it was following the match plan a little bit clearer. We had guys kind of freestyling both against the ball and with the ball. So still staying true to the principles and the tactics and the match plans which was a talking point a lot last year, like we would build match plans and ideas and the game would start and the emotion of the game would take over and the opponent was good. Then we wouldn't play the way we wanted it and often at halftime we would say ‘hey, stick to the plan. Here's what's good, here's where we can find space, here's what we can exploit’ and then typically we had better performances in the second half. So that was a little bit like that today.
Is that your biggest challenge at the moment, getting the players to follow your plan?
No, our biggest challenge at the moment is to continue to push the team at every level to get better and better and better. Again, I said this last week, every match in this league is a massive final, exam, test, whatever you want to call it. Just because we pass one or two on the year doesn't mean we're going to pass all of them and where we are as a club is we're still developing things but we like our guys, we like our process, we like where we are and we're going to keep pushing,
Klich and Sinisterra came on and made an impact again…?
I was really excited to get them on the pitch and I thought they could help and they did. Like I said maybe if we’re a little bit quicker on the action and Luis finds a way to get a foot on it and it's again, it's 1-0 and then it's a different game. So yeah, but more work to do, more work to do.
From their performances in midweek and their impact today. Are they really putting themselves in your mind for starting shirts against Everton?
We'll have to wait and see. Everton will be another different kind of game. It's a different kind of opponent but it'll be another big test and we just have to look at where guys are physically and then draw on our roster in the right way and put a team out there that we think will be ready for that match.
Liam Cooper obviously played midweek but wasn't in the squad today, where was he?
Yeah, he picked up a little something in his calf so we just again decided to be a little bit safe. Trying to get the guys that have been injured, it'll be the same Luke Ayling, it'll be the same with Junior Firpo, that when we get them back in we can build up fitness and sharpness and everything in a way so that we don't have little setbacks.
I always get really frustrated when we build a process and then it winds up leading to a small little injury that interrupts things so yeah, obviously we're disappointed with that, but it's not bad
What did Brighton do in the first half to make playing out so difficult?
They man mark. They very clearly man mark and then with the ball, they almost just played long and gave us the ball because they wanted to bypass our pressing, which is part of the match plan that we wanted to build, because when you play against man marking, if you get them to give them time to get into their schemes, then it's always difficult, unless you're really sharp with combinations and then movements in behind to break them down.
For me, we didn't do the things that we wanted to do and then we invited them more and more to dictate the way the game was played. I think we tried to change that in the second half, and I think we tilted the bar more in the second.
Were you frustrated by the officiating?
Yes. What makes you say that?
Any comments?
No, I already made a few.
Where did the attack struggle today, would say was it in the build-up phase in terms of getting through Tyler and Marc and giving the front four something to do?
We tried to create some roles and then some dynamic movements and patterns that we wanted to break the man marking. At times we had a little bit of success, but not enough. They did a good job.
Again, they're there man marking scheme, every team that they've played has had trouble with it. The way to beat man marking for me is in second ball moments. They can't get into their schemes fast enough so then you can start to find more space and combinations that you play fast and tempo and that you have good dynamic movements, force them to have the ball more and then say, ‘Okay, we're going to be better against the ball than they are today’.
That's everything that they did to us that we wanted to do to them. So we tilted it more on the second half again, and then the game was more in the balance.
We saw in the first half, you were giving Diego a lot of instructions, telling him to sort of come wider and sweep around so Pascal was released?
Yeah, we had several patterns and ideas of what we wanted Diego to do when he received the ball and what the movements were and we weren't doing them. It's always fluid, the game is always fluid. You can't call timeouts and say ‘okay, go here and do this’.
We just need to now understand how to read moments how to stick to the things that we want so that the relationships are clear on the pitch.
When you say you had players freestyling, what were you seeing specifically that they weren't applying?
Mostly in the build-up phase that we were trying things that we never talked about. We looked very carefully at what Brighton does and we saw a lot of good things, but then we tried to exploit some things that we thought where they wouldn't be vulnerable. The most important thing was that we didn't want to get lured into a game where we were just always trying to build up and giving them balls and then having them counter us. That's exactly what happened in the first half. We were lucky in the first half to get out, really lucky. But, some good defending some good saves and those moments.
We'll continue to harp on the confidence but the discipline and the principles so that in these moments we can be better.
Jesse, I believe that was the referee’s second Premier League game. He did the Leicester-Southampton game as his first one. Did you think it overawed him a little bit?
I didn't know that it was his second match in the Premier League. I didn't think it was a good performance. But again, I don't think ours was a good performance either so this can happen. But we had him as the fourth official against Chelsea and I like his demeanour and I just think he didn't have the best performance, I know I let him know that.
It was a bit of a physical game in the first half, tackles were going in and your players got yellow carded. Was that the plan?
They're big and strong but they like to play physical and they like to play against the ball and so do we. To do that you have to you have to be physical. You have to be strong. I didn't think it crossed the line. I thought they played well
Just given you said you were frustrated with the referee, do you feel like the yellow card your received was justified?
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I thought my behaviour at that point, it was deserved the yellow card. I always say, I repeat myself, but when you don't when you don't believe that you're getting performances out of the referee, I think you have two options: to sit there and take it or to escalate your behaviour to try to make a point to see if you can affect the way that decisions are getting made.
Sometimes it works for you. Sometimes it works against you, but I'll never be a guy that just sits there and takes it, that's not me.
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