Thomas Frank
We saw Christian Norgaard miss two big chances – do you think he should have scored one of them or was it excellent goalkeeping by Tim Krul to deny him?
I think if you save the ball with your head, there must be something a little bit of luck or margins!
How frustrated have you been with these last couple of weeks?
At this moment of time, I hate losing, I’m devastated and my body is burning and you can also feel that I am very irritated. But when I watch the video on Monday, it will be more calming because we are on the right track. It’s impossible to look at these performances and not get more points if we continue doing that.
A few results can start eating away at confidence, so how are you going to keep the confidence there?
If you look at our second half, hopefully we can turn it around away to Newcastle next time and it will take care of itself. When you look at the actions on the pitch today where the way they took care of the ball, the way they offered themselves to get the ball – I didn’t see any lack of confidence. After going 0-2, we showed lot of willingness and hard work, but we lost a little bit discipline and structure.
Latest on Zanka and Vitaly Janelt?
Vitaly is fine, that was a tactical decision. I don’t know about Zanka’s injury – he got a minor one in training yesterday so I don’t know if it was the one he got today that stopped him continuing or another one. I will find out on Monday.
Is it important to remember mistakes can happen [Goode’s challenge on Pukki] but players like Charlie have an important role to play throughout the rest of the season?
I think it’s important to say we need everyone in the squad. We’ve been very unlucky with injuries so far, I think we have some of the most, I don’t know the stats or anything. I think I have a fantastic medical staff so I think it’s been very very unlucky with the injuries we’ve got, but it is what it is. That’s where we need a good squad, I need players to be available and ready. I think Charlie did very well despite the penalty, but I think not much to do in that situation.
With the international break, are you going to take the time to rest or is now the time to do even more work on the training ground ahead of the Newcastle game after the break?
I think we always use the first week, again very consistent in what we want to do. We more or less have the same principles we work from and that’s why we’ve been good, and we still are good. So the first week, some players need to do a bit more depending on their fitness level, some of them will play a game on Wednesday, some players who need to get to their level and then some players need to adjust from injuries – that’s the first week. They get a few days off at the end of the week, then the next week Monday, bang! That’s where we look forward to Newcastle.
