Latest COVID/Injury news?
Hopefully Ivan [Toney] is available, we’ll find out later today. Besides that, it’ll be the same players from the last game [against Watford] and of course Sergi [Canos] is coming back from suspension.
When you got promoted, were these the nights you looked forward to and dreamed of?
As I said, every game is the most important and Man Utd is the most important right now. Of course, I’m also aware it’s a massive club and going into the game, I’m just preparing for a team with 11 players and try to do the best to close them down. I hope for myself, that will be five minutes before the game, this will be a good experience. I know when [Andre] Marriner blows the whistle, it’s a game anyone else badly wants to win but of course, it’s a nice moment to look forward to.
United aren’t the same side that blitzed their way to the Premier League title nine seasons ago, but how much have you and the players been buzzing for this one?
I think today, we’ll see how much forward they’re looking to it. I didn’t speak to the players too much yesterday about Man Utd, we had a debrief on the Watford game, reflecting a little bit back on that and looking at the individual performances. So today, we’ll look into it and of course, I’ll do my very best. Every game, my players will be unbelievably motivated to try to do our best but of course, it’s completely natural that this game, they will just look it’s going to be a tiny bit more interesting in a way.
In terms of United’s COVID issues, could this work in your favour?
We are just missing last year’s top goal scorer, one of our best centre-backs and I think we are playing one of the biggest clubs in the world. Decent players, number seven Ronaldo, Rashford and Fernandes, the most creative player in the Premier League in the last two years. I think it will even out.
United were fortunate to win at Norwich, do you feel you could take advantage of their weaknesses?
I hope so! That’s what we want to try to do. I think besides from the Burnley game, every game we’ve played so far we’ve shown we can stay in them and we have a chance to get something out of it. I have a massive belief that we can go into this game tomorrow and try to do it our way; try to attack, try to be front-footed with a positive and offensive mindset. If we are bang on, I’m sure we can create problems for Man Utd.
