Is it fair to say your players weren’t at their best today?
Well I think Everton were really good. We have to congratulate them first for how they’ve turned things around and I think they made it difficult to win the game because they were really efficient.
From our side disappointment because we didn’t get the result that we wanted and the performance doesn’t reflect what we’ve been doing especially in two phases – one, when they were really direct and we struggled to control that type of game and get back to the game that we wanted to play, and then with the amount of open situations that we generated in the final third that has to finish with goals and clear cut chances more than we’ve done today.
Are you disappointed with how your players responded to the crowd today?
Yeah, but we cannot control the energy that they’re going to have. I was certain it was going to be exactly how it’s been today. The other thing is what we can do in the game and try to quiet them as much as possible and cause that frustration that we could generate. There were moments where we managed to do that and other moments where we allowed them to get to that stage.
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Did your players show enough emotional composure at the end?
No. In the last 10 or 15 minutes, particularly after we made the changes, we started to give away a lot of free-kicks and a lot of rash decisions which is exactly what they want – slow the game down, do everything really long, play long into your line and don’t play a lot. We haven’t managed that well enough.
Is that your team suffering from the pressure?
No, I don’t think so, we’ve played a lot of games this season like that already. But credit to them, this is what they train every single day. You have to defend it really well to get your control and earn the right to play. For moments we did it and in other moments we didn’t do it well enough to dominate in the game.
What do you want the team to learn from this loss?
I want the team to know how much I love them. I love them much more now than three hours ago, a week ago, a month ago, three months ago. It’s very easy to be next to the players when they’re winning and performing. These are the moments when I love my players more and my staff more and we’re going to stay together. This journey is going to be difficult and challenging and there’s going to be big stones in the middle and we have to overcome that. Now we have to prepare the week really well to get to Saturday with the right emotional spirit to beat Brentford.
How do you stop this defeat rolling into two or three like last season?
Winning.
There must be things you can try though?
Yeah, you can try a lot of things but at the end of the day you have to go on the pitch and win the game.
Is the most important thing how you respond now like you did at Old Trafford?
The best way to do it is understand who we are, how we got where we are and start to do the basic things right, start to play the way we want to play. Then start to do it better individually and collectively and then you will earn the right to win games.
Was that your message to the players after the game?
Yes.
Was that an example of the new manager bounce?
Yeah but that shouldn’t take credit away from Sean and the team. It’s one thing to say it and another thing to do it and they did it today.
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