How would you assess your side’s performance tonight?
I thought we were deservedly beaten. I thought that we made life difficult for ourselves with the goals that we conceded at the start of first half and then again at the start of the second half. Any hope we had of trying to stay in the game was quickly kyboshed by the second half goal, both of course came from unfortunate technical errors which happen in a game of football. After that, we tried our best, I thought, to keep Leeds at bay, but we didn’t create enough chances so as a result have to accept we lost to the better team this evening and go home beaten by two goals to nil.
You gave Mateta his debut tonight, how do you think he did?
Well it was going to be a very difficult for him, it was a very difficult game anyway. The pitch didn’t help – I know it’s the same for both teams but we seemed to have even more trouble than they did keeping our footing on the pitch. And of course, it’s his first game in the Premier League, playing against a team that pressurise very fiercely and aggressively, so it was going to be a hard game for him. I think it’s good he’s got the 65 minutes behind him, we’ll keep working with him and hopefully he’ll come to terms more and more with what the Premier League is the more he works with us.
Are Leeds one of the most difficult sides to play against when you’re chasing a game?
I think all teams are hard to play against when you concede early on and you’re chasing the game. But normally our passing is better than it was tonight, I don’t quite know the reason for that. As I said, the pitch didn’t help us but that’s not the complete answer. We gave the ball away more often than I’m used to seeing us give the ball away and as a result we were unable to create enough pressure on our opponent to really get ourselves back in the game. Having conceded as you rightly say, so early in both halves, we were facing an uphill battle.
Well of course if Wilf had been fit, he might not have got a chance to play today. It was really a case of choosing alongside Jordan Ayew which of the three forwards I wanted to play and I thought it was the right time. He’s been with us a couple of weeks, he’s been chomping at the bit to get a start in the Premier League. I knew it would be a bit of a baptism of fire for him but I thought it would be good to see what he could do. Whoever played up front today from the start, if I had chosen one of the other two, would have found it difficult. there’s no question of that. But I think it’s good he got 65 minutes. We took him off partially because I think that was enough time for him in this game, but also he looked to be tiring, I thought. He was tiring a lot, which was also going to happen because of a) the pitch was heavy and hard to play and b) he is not used to the intensity of Premier League football.
You started both Tyrick Mitchell and Patrick van Aanholt on the left tonight, what was the reasoning behind that?
Well the reason was because we know how good they are in the wide areas and we thought because Patrick can play further forward that might be a good left side, that might give us a little bit more help defensively against Raphinha or Harrison, whoever played on that side. But it didn’t work as well as we would have liked, it was hard for Patrick to come to terms with that position. But perhaps it might have gone a little bit better had we not been a goal down after three minutes. It was a chance to look at something and I wouldn’t be averse to trying it again. But tonight I thought it was best at half-time to bring Andros, who is a more experienced performer in the wide area, onto the field in the hope that we could stay in the game, defend a bit better and maybe get an equaliser. But of course that plan was scotched by their early second half goal.
