Japhet Tanganga
How pleased were you with that performance after this poor week?
I’m very happy with the result, I’m very happy with the performance, I’m very happy with the attitude. I’m not happy with the feeling that if you did it tonight, why you didn’t do it 48 hours ago? That match on Thursday will be a scar for a long time. It’s not going to heal just because we won, but total credit to the players. They were a team. They fought together. They put in the game that honest, that dignity that football players should, should put in every match. I think the next challenge for this team is to have a performance like this one, not as a reaction to a bad or a couple of bad results, but to have this reaction, this attitude, this collective state of soul to have these every game. We are going to lose matches, we are going to play bad, but to have these human qualities in every match is the next challenge for the team.
Did you watch Hugo Lloris’ interview and did you recognise the things he was talking about?
I didn’t watch it. I didn’t listen to it. I closed myself in my shell as I was saying before, I don’t need to read or listen or to watch to have a personal reaction. I am a very mature guy and I have emotional stability. I don’t need to read or to listen. I was not interested, I was interested in analysing and thinking about the best approach I could have with my players, and to focus on my job rather than reactions after the game.
Talk us through your team selection today?
My thinking was we need angry people, we need fresh and positive feelings. We need kids on the bench that live a dream, kids that if you play them 10 seconds, they play them like the last seconds of their career. I need people on the pitch that I know the match is really important for them. Tanganga and Rodon are these kind of players. This kind of positivity is something that the team needed. I think it was good. The two best defenders on our team were Harry Kane and Vinicius. In the first half they didn’t have a shot. In the second half of course there is always a corner, always a shot, always a second ball but when you start defending with your two strikers, the team is solid and in control. So we had lots of positive things. And of course I understand, they deserve this individual praise. Crazy performance by Lucas, Harry, Pierre – we had some fantastic individual performances but for me this is the victory of the dressing room, the victory of their spirit, the victory of the group that felt ashamed of what happened in the last week. To be ashamed I always think is a man’s reaction. Don’t care, don’t give a (swears) is not for men. To be ashamed is a man’s reaction which they had and I’m very happy for them.
How can you make sure that that reaction that reaction you provoke, can continue?
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. That’s the challenge, for me and for the group. That’s the challenge. I told already your colleagues from TV, I told exactly that. That’s the next challenge. We are going to lose matches, we are going to play bad, we are going to have not very good performances. But this state of mind, this emotional approach, this team spirit, this sacrifice. A guy coming from the bench like Sissoko to play eight minutes, and to give it all in this eight minutes. This kind of situation is the next challenge for myself as a coach. But I think is more of a challenge for them. For them as a group.
