Michail Antonio
Michail Antonio joked in his TV interview that he missed the chance for his third goal because he tried to hit it onto his left foot to get the perfect hat-trick, any thoughts on that?
I don’t know about that! All I saw was he kicked it off of one leg onto the other! But for me as a manager, we needed to get that [third] goal to put it to bed and we couldn’t quite get to the third goal in the game. But we went a goal down tonight and the players showed great resilience, they stuck at it. We started the game well enough and we did not really deserve to go a goal down but we had and we got a goal back and we went on and really we could have scored more goals tonight.
What is the significance of coming to Burnley on a night like that, a tough opponent who are still fighting to stay in the division as well. What is the significance when it comes to the top four and the push for the Champions League places?
Well, all you get is three points for a win so that is all we can take away from it. But I think there were a lot of good things we could take away from it with our overall performance, our appetite to try and score goals tonight was great. When he had to our goalkeeper made a great save when he was called on, so I think all in all we have had a really good team performance tonight. We are there, we are around a wee bit at the moment. We are going to try and keep up with the teams at the top. Whether we can make the top four I am not sure but I would really like to try and get ourselves in a position where we could possibly make Europe and we are in there fighting with four games to go.
Were you surprised with how sharp Michail Antonio looked and how long he managed to last?
I was a little bit surprised, he has come back in better condition than when he dropped out, but we never really felt that he had such a bad injury that it was going to be so serious. But I thought he looked in super condition, he has been working really hard and he deserved his two goals tonight and on another day he should have scored another two so there is a bit of both. But to make the chances and opportunities we made is really pleasing and we move on, we can’t dwell on it. We’ll get back to London and get ready for the next game.
Said Benrahma was given the chance to start tonight, what did you make of his performance?
I felt it was probably a game suitable for him. I thought Said did a lot of good things tonight, but I thought there were a couple of things which he didn’t do so well which I think people will see as well and we are looking for the consistency from him. He got himself a couple of chances to score and made his chances, but I am hoping we have got [more of] them coming. I have a lot of belief in him, I think he is a boy who is going to take a little bit longer than most to settle for lots of reasons but I think he is just going to come into the squad now and help us a lot in the remaining four games and I hope we see that in the games to come.
Manuel Lanzini impressed tonight, what are your thoughts on his performance?
I thought Lanzini was very good, I don’t know if he gave the ball away tonight. He has been a little bit unlucky not to play because I have seen lots of good things from him, he has had a couple of injuries which has seen him falter a little bit and maybe not sure if he was fully fit. He is another one who has played 90 minutes tonight, passed the ball well and helped us play better, he kept it [well], so I am really pleased with Manu because he is someone who I really like and he has done well previously. But he has changed as a player and he has to realise that himself, he is not the same as he was probably since his since injury two or three years ago.
What more does Benrahma need to do to get in the starting XI regularly?
He needs to be more consistent with his use of the ball. He needs to be more consistent with his decisions. His decisions have to be something we can all understand and we can read, and I actually think he needs to hit the target more often than he has done. I think if he hits the target more often he had a chance today where he bent one in the far corner, I was hoping that he would score. But I have to say he has been working hard in training, I like him a lot and I do think he has a big impact to play this season but I think in seasons to come as well.
Do you expect to have Angelo Ogbonna available again this season?
I would hope so but I couldn’t say. It is really disappointing that we lost Mark Noble and Angelo tonight because they are both really experienced players for us at this stage of the season so it was good to get two back but I am hoping Angelo isn’t too bad and might not be too far away for the coming games.
