Congratulations Jesse, it's just been summer up there, the chief executive has just come up and give you a big hug. You're in the fourth round, how pleased were you with the performance tonight?
Yeah, really, really happy. I felt really strongly before the game that we were ready for a strong performance. I told the team that. Obviously 35 seconds in, you can’t ask for a better start. A lot of individual good performances on the on the night for me and a collective understanding of what we wanted to achieve. I said after the Villa game that we took that as a big positive and if we play like that, that we're going to we're going to do well.
It's a game we should win, but that doesn't mean you're always going to win. In the end, we performed well, and we got the deserved result.
The finishing was sensational. Collectively, why did it click tonight so well, because there was massive passages of play where you looked like everything was in sync?
Yeah, I think again, it's about trying to demand that we do the things that we want to do and achieve the tactical things that we want to achieve at the highest level. That creates confidence within the group because they understand the connections with each other. So that is coming together and the commitment to do that over and over and over and over again is getting better and better and better. So, again, I know I've taken a lot of criticism, in some ways rightfully so, but I've felt internally that we've been moving ourselves definitely in the right direction.
Read more: Four big Leeds United winners against Cardiff as Whites seal FA Cup berth in style
Tonight is a night where what you wanted to happen, what you've talked about happening actually came good. So in that way, do you feel a bit vindicated?
No, I mean, listen, obviously it was an important moment for us, but this is just another moment in the development that we're trying to create it an important moment to gather momentum but hard to say validation because we still have so much to do. There's still half the season to play for. I'm glad that we're still in the cup and we can give our fans a bit of a cup run hopefully, but our focus has to stay totally remained on development.
With Brentford coming at the weekend, of all the positives, do you look at Gnonto, do you look at Bamford tonight, Sinisterra coming on? What's the big positive for you going into that game?
Since the break, I think in every game, there's been moments where we've done really well in games and then now we've put two complete performances together for me. So now the key will be to do that again against a team that's very confident, that has comfortability with themselves.
I think that's what Brentford has, a real clarity of what their identity is and how to play the way they want to play, which is ultimately what we're trying to achieve here. We're earlier in our process than they are, but I have a lot of respect for what Thomas Frank has done and now the belief that they have in their team.
Do you feel you maybe are one or two performances away from being able to be comfortable with yourselves?
It takes time. Obviously, I've been critical of myself, that I haven't gotten more out of the group earlier. But, like I've said, I do start to see the momentum coming together. There's still going to be bumps in the road but I believe that that our team is absolutely gathering momentum and moving in the right direction.
Max Wober, are you concerned about his injury?
I asked him in the dressing room and he said he doesn't think it's too bad. So hopefully, he can regenerate and go again. Pascal was carrying a little bit of a knee knock. It's the reason we didn't play him. Robin and Coops each had a little bit of a knock so we decided not to stress them.
Obviously getting the Luis back, Georgi’s looked really good in training. So yeah, we start to have a really good squad and potential to push this thing.
What a goal it was from Gnonto, it reminded us of the Paolo Di Canio goal a few years ago…
Yeah, we wanted to have a fast start. Obviously, that was a dream start. Good ball from Rodri, good diagonal chip, good running in the deep. Willy, I think was really clever, like he bumps the defender a little bit, makes a little room for himself, arranges his feet and an incredible finish. So Willy’s obviously in a really good way. Really good way.
His signing, does it show there are gems out there?
Yeah. We knew about him for a while and like I said he was a little bit more of an idea to bring him in the future. But given where we were on the transfer deadline day I think, because we knew him and we thought ‘okay, maybe we bring them in six months earlier and we start the process a little bit earlier.’ We've done that. He is a very intelligent, humble, grounded, real human being who wants to improve, wants to work hard, and believes in the process that we've created for him and for the group.
So I said from the beginning that he had a real positive impact on Crysencio Summerville, they have a really good relationship and it's funny, Luis went down and it opened up a chance the door for Cree a little bit and then Cree has gone down and it's opened up the door for Willy a little bit. Now if we can get all these weapons back and we can really start to go at teams and make subs and throw more weapons on the pitch, then we can start to have a strategy to be pretty explosive.
A sub that came on today and scored two was Patrick Bamford, we know the issues he’s had. How nice was it to see him come on and do that and timely as well, when 10 minutes earlier, Rutter was being shown off to the crowd?
So in general, I think we were really hopeful that this surgery was going to solve some big physical issues with Patrick because obviously it's been a tough year for him. When he was out, it took longer for him to recover from the surgery than everyone had planned.
You could see he was suffering during that moment and I had one conversation with him where I just said, ‘all right’. He was a little bit stressed that he wasn't feeling perfect, that he wasn't starting all the time, that he wasn't scoring all the goals. I tried to see if I could clear his head and just have him get back to loving to play football again. I've seen that now out of Patrick for two weeks, like in training and now these last two games, you see a guy that, who by the way has a smile on his face a lot and that's what I think the way he has to play and I think when he plays like that, then he can be at his best. So really happy to get him on track.
Frankie (Franz Scheimer) was here tonight. Was it scheduled for him to be back for this time or is he coming to support you during this time?
Yeah, when there's been stressful moments, I think we've tried to get all hands on deck to try to make sure that that we're doing everything we can internally. Frankie was scheduled to come at this time, he's come, he's staying for a little bit longer than we planned just to try to make sure that we're on top of it especially considering that we haven't rounded out our coaching crew, yet which will happen in a couple of days. But yeah, it's good to have him here.
The move for Gnonto’s second goal, from back to front, is the kind of football the fans really appreciate, how much do you want to replicate that moment?
Overall I would just say that this was, again, it's not a Premier League opponent, but just in terms of a tactical understanding of the way we want to play. I think we've had two matches in a row, you could maybe say two and a half matches at the end of Cardiff, where now you start to see the execution of tactically what we're trying to create.
I know that the fans aren't always certain what we're doing, I hear some people say that we do man marking. I hear some people say that we try to press every ball, there's a lot of nuances to what we're trying to do and that's why it takes a little bit of time for the team to come together and put it into practice. But again, I've felt that it's taken too long, but that it's starting to come together but we still have a lot more work to do.
When you see Willy, Patrick and Rodrigo all scoring tonight and playing brilliant and you have Georginio, Cree, Luis all to come in, how much does that whet your appetite?
We said two days ago, because Luis had his first day of training, Georgi had his first day of training, and we said at that point. ‘Now we've got something’. I know it's hard for everybody to be patient. I know it is and obviously when we're not getting the points that we should be getting I come into the spotlight.
I want to keep this I want to try to find a way for our fans, for our club, for everybody, to keep the belief in this team because I see them every day I see their work ethic, I see their commitment to each other, even this report that comes out, the BS about some of the players are against me is just awful. It's just awful. We are united. We are together. We are doing everything we can as a group, we are all harbouring the responsibility, especially me and we believe in ourselves. We know we're going to get better and so we're certainly not done and we have a big challenge on Sunday, but we're going to keep going.
You’ve seen what Elland Road can be like on tense days, how important was the win and the manner of it for the mood on Sunday?
We know our fans are passionate, and we know that they are good at supporting the team 100% when they love what they see and that they're also good at showing frustration if it's not what they want to see. The one thing I would say in general is since I've been here, I really don't think there's been a performance where the guys haven't laid it all on the pitch like 100% running, competing, giving everything they have. Leicester wasn't great, but they this team goes out really and tries their best every game and works for the fans and works for the team.
We need to grow and get better and be smarter and be sharper and all these things but it will come.
Is Rutter in a position where you could unleash him at the weekend?
I think we're still getting into 100% fitness, and then I think he will adapt quickly. So I would anticipate that he's in the squad and then maybe we will we'll think about using him from the bench.
In amongst all these attacking options how important is Rodrigo?
I said to you guys, and I told him, it's maybe the best performance I've had from a striker since I've been a coach and that's saying something considering some of the players that I've coached. He did everything for the team and he has been doing that lately. So he's been really important, really important.
You played a strong team in both these games against Cardiff, we see lots of Premier League managers that don't at this stage, it shows how important it was for you to get the job done and I guess that the victory sort of outweighed the risks of injuries to your players…
It's always a little bit tricky with these fixtures. I've never lost to a lower division team and I value the cup. You're trying to get the balance right in some moments. For these two matches we probably made one or two calls to not play guys based on physically they were nursing a little a few things but if it were a Premier League match, we might have fielded the same line-ups that we did in both matches against Cardiff.
What was nice was that the clarity and tactical execution in both matches and in the Aston Villa match was clear. So the whole group is coming together not just 11 players.
You talked about Patrick playing with a smile on his face. How helpful was it that he came on, unlike in the Arsenal game, where the game was basically won and there was less pressure on him?
Yeah, I mean, if it would have been 3-1 then I was not sure if I was going to make all the changes not that I didn't believe in the guys but you want to make sure that you get into half and you feel like things are secure and that guys have a chance to go on the pitch and are set up to succeed.
I think that worked well but Patrick performed well in the Arsenal game, too, he just didn't get the goal.
Jesse, I was looking to see how much Leeds paid for Willy in September, I think it was like £4m, I was wondering if you had to put a value on him now, what that would be?
More than £4m.
Could it have gone up tenfold?
It's always hard you know to say what the value of different players are. You go to Transfermarkt sometimes and you see they have the different values. In general as a manager, I really like working with young explosive talent, attacking talent. I've tried to provide them with confidence in some ideas of how we want to play football, some of the ways we want to be in transition, and then the give them freedom to go out and play. I find that if you specifically show them belief and help them with certain tools of what the game can look like that they can, they can benefit from it greatly and they can grow quickly.
With Cree it was very similar, you could see that he learned quickly and you can see it with Willy.
I think Rodri’s adapted really well. I think Patrick has now potential to really get himself going. We can go down the list and that'll be the goal with Georgi. That'll be the goal that you really get Luis on track and again, then we can have some weapons.
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