Jesse, congratulations. How much was it a case of taking care of business today and getting it done?
Yeah, I think in general I was pleased that the mentality was that we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we knew there was going to be a lot of long throw-ins and balls in the box and hectic moments, but we handled it we weren’t displeased with the fact that it was an ugly game at times. We just knew we had to do what we wanted to do to take care of business. So we did that and now we’re able to move on.
There was some real quality at times not least from the debutant Georginio Rutter, how did you feel he did in his 75 minutes?
I thought for Luis, Patrick and Georgi in general, never playing together, that they were pretty good and some attacking moments. I thought even the first goal where they kind of put a few things together that led to Jack having a wonderful strike. They looked like they understood their roles, Georgi for sure. He was dangerous in some of the transition moments and a little bit unlucky not to come away the goal.
Junior Firpo’s first goal, that must be a massive boost and the fans were enjoying it as well?
Is it his first goal for the club? Really? Okay. I think Junior has been really good. I know he’s had a tough time here with injuries and with fans sometimes being dissatisfied with him, but his mentality to work for the team and to try to get himself into really good form has been good. I think now he’s played in three Cup matches and I think he’s been one of our best players in all three of those matches. So, I think we’re getting him fit, we’re getting him sharp and I think he’s challenging and knocking on the door to get himself in the starting XI for league matches as well.
Jack Harrison was probably the pick of the bunch and you gave him a massive hug when he came off. Is that you showing ‘this club wants you, Jack’, despite all the talk?
Yeah, all I’ll say is I really like Jack. First as a person, he’s one of the most incredible people I’ve ever coached. We like him here. We want to keep him. He’s performing really well. I think getting him fit and healthy has been a big key. He’s got flexibility in the way he plays. And I was just happy for him with all the things that are circulating that that he was so clear and sharp and good on the day. So that was the biggest reason for the hug.
Is that the best thing that Jack can do at the moment, let his football do the talking?
When things starts circulating, it’s not never so easy to just stay focused on what your job is. But I’ve tried to have open dialogue with him and be very honest with him and we have that kind of relationship. And then he does like it here. That’s all I can say. It’s not like he’s itching to leave. I know when I see him now I see a guy who’s clear and confident and a guy that nothing’s going to faze him. I thought it was really good performance and what a great goal as well.
On Patrick as well, you have a lot of attacking options right now, Georginio as well, two assists for him but what do you make of Patrick going up against quite a rudimentary, quite a robust defence?
Well, that was another big hug for him at the 75th minute because we finally got him physically to a point where he was exhausted because he puts so much into the match and he had to fight up there against some big centre backs. I thought the way he asserted himself at all moments within the matches exactly what we needed, so happy to see him in good form. Certainly, yeah, it gives us more weapons. We have weapons now and that’s fun for a manager to work with.
How’s the squad looking at the moment? No Liam or Tyler today, did you decide not to take a risk with them?
Yes, I think Liam and Cree will be in training tomorrow. Tyler and Pascal may need one more day and then everyone else is looking fit and strong. Right, except for Stuart and Adam is close as well. So we’re getting healthy and strong and we’re equipping ourselves with some quality so it’s a good feeling right now if and not just that, we’re performing well match after match after match. So I feel like we’re starting to gain momentum.
It’s the last time we’ll speak to you before the deadline on Tuesday night. Can you at least tell fans whether the club will be active?
No. Sorry, of course the fans want us to be active but yeah, I’m staying quiet on that.
Patrick Bamford today looked as close to Bamford as we knew him at his peak as we’ve seen him in a long, long time. That must have been quite a big step?
I think a huge step for him. And even last week, he didn’t quite feel ready to start. And so we had this we trained hard this week in preparation for this and you could see that he looks like himself. So, then the discussion was ‘okay, how long can we go’ and we said ‘let’s check at half ‘and half he felt great. This game had a lot of pauses because there was a lot of long balls and throw-ins and this kind of stuff so it didn’t have the pace of what a Premier League match has. But still 75 minutes for him at this point from what he’s been through in the last year, I think is gigantic. So it gives us a chance I think to really start to push Patrick and to be the player that we know it can be
What are you hoping for in the next round? It’s a long time since you were drawn at home?
Yeah, that’s what I think, it would be really great to play at Elland Road for such an important match and get our fans involved and get everybody excited in the city. We’re happy that the team’s come together. We’re happy that we’ve been able to push in this tournament, obviously a home draw would be would be great.
