On last weekend’s 2-0 home defeat to Everton…
“I think it’s fair to say that was our most disappointing result and performance of the season. Up until two games ago, after the Aston Villa game (2-2 home draw), I think everyone inside and outside the club could see the momentum in the performances with four games unbeaten and lots of progression. Now we’ve had two games either side of an international break that haven’t gone our way (losing 4-1 at West Ham previously). Poor moments have cost us and we haven’t managed to muster up a response to get some something from the games.
“Everyone was disappointed after Saturday. When you have a home record like ours it’s extra disappointing. But we know these set-backs are going to come over the course of a the season.
“I don’t think it’s always a linear progression as you’re trying to develop. We’ve taken some good steps forwards and then probably a couple of steps back in the last couple of games. The response has been good this week. The next game is always an opportunity.”
On the wait for a Premier League win…
“We’ve got a result in half our games and if we’d won just one of them then the narrative would be different. There’s no doubt, however, that as the games go on, getting the first win will be a big boost. I think that’s clear to see and to feel.
“It’s not worth making it any bigger than it is. It’s about following the process and giving everything to the next performance and trusting that the good things will come.
“We had a spell last season in the Championship where we had one win in nine games, then we had nine wins in 10 games immediately after. If you asked me what we changed drastically in that period it was probably not a lot. It’s very fine margins in football. A couple of times the margins go your way, you get players back from injury, some players come into the team and do well and things can change.
“In League One we had a period where we had maybe one win in nine games, then we won 13 out of 14 and smashed almost every EFL record in terms of that run. What did we do differently? Not a whole lot.
“I’m not saying we’re on the cusp of that sort of run in the Premier League, but I believe you have to focus on trying to do the right things, in training and games, and if you do that over a long enough period of time then things will turn in your favour.”
On whether the team are playing with nerves…
“Let me use Cameron Burgess as an example, who I think had a very good game last week. Cameron Burgess is landing back from Japan on Thursday morning (following international duty with Australia), he gets one day of preparation to face (Dominic) Calvert-Lewin ahead of fulfilling his dream of becoming a Premier League player after a journey that’s taken him from the National League. If he doesn’t have some nerves prior to that then he’s probably some version of a psychopath!
“Pretty much every game we’ve had a player making their Premier League debut. We’ve got an awful lot of players who have climbed a long way to get to this point in their career. So if there is not some nerves and anxiety, then they are probably not competitive sports people.
“Would those nerves be different if we were sitting fifth in the table and pushing for the Champions League? Maybe. But we had a lot of nerves in the team when we were pushing for promotion from League One. It was the same in the Championship last season.
“For sure you can look at a couple of moments in the Everton game and say there were a few mistakes that possibly looked like nervous mistakes, but they’re human beings and the step that so many of them are taking means there was always going to be that.
“Handling nerves is something that you have to deal with individually and as a group and use in a positive manner. It’s up to us to make sure support them the best way possible.”
On the need to ‘trust the process’…
“As I said, there have been periods in the past where we haven’t won and we’ve come out of those periods by sticking to our day-to-day processes.
“Going into the season we knew, as a newly-promoted team, it was going to feel very different and we weren’t going to win so many games.
“The team that finishes 17th in the Premier League usually gets between eight and nine wins over the course of a 38-game season. So that’s one win a month, if you want to do some very loose math. It might mean you don’t win for three months, but then win three games in a row and still be on course. Everton last year finished with an almost mid-table points total, but they didn’t win for 11 games at one stage. That’s a team that has over 2,000 Premier League appearances amongst them.
“We knew there would be periods where we didn’t win for a stretch. You pre-frame these things, you speak about it as a group and you try and lay down how you’re going to be in those moments. Then you set your process right and you deal with it. Our way of dealing with it is doubling down on how well we train, how hard we train, how we prepare, how we stick together as a group and how we just focus on the next game. That’s what’s brought us success as a group before and that’s what I think will bring us success this year.”
On whether he needs to change system/tactics…
“Look, the reality is, as a newly-promoted team, we’re going to lose a lot more games than we have previously. And when you lose games there’s always going to be another opinion on how you could do things. That’s the life of a manager. Your theory gets tested every week and there are a thousand other theories that never get tested, so they’ll never be wrong!
“We’re trying to find the right balance between sticking to our principles and adapting to be as competitive as we have been.
“To say we’re doing exactly the same this season as we did last season would be untrue, if you go into the details. To say we did exactly the same last year as we did in League One the year before would be completely untrue. People probably see some of the same personnel and loose framework and think everything’s the same, but we have always adjusted and adapted with little details game-by-game to give us the best chance to be competitive. We continue to do that every week.
“A lot of those details aren’t always going to be apparent. We’re probably not going to go from A to Z week-by-week in terms of looking like a drastically different football team, but within that there are so many details we go into that we try and adjust to give ourselves the best chance. That’s even more important in a period where we’re challenged by injuries and availability.”
On giving cheap goals away…
“The two goals we conceded against Everton have nothing to do with system, shape, tactics, philosophy. If you make two big mistakes in your penalty area – one from a set-piece, one from open play – and give one of the wiliest teams in the Premier League those goals then, while it’s not impossible to get something from the game, it’s going to be very, very difficult.
“The West Ham game was pretty similar if you look at the goals we conceded. At the moment there have been too many of them. When you have goals like than then a Premier League game is always going to be really difficult. It’s up for us to work through that, identify if there’s any trends and find some solutions. But sometimes it’s just a case of humans making errors when playing sport at a really high level.
“We know that the course of the last two games could have been really different. In the West Ham game we had big chances at 1-1 that could have changed the complexion. We know there were big moments in the Everton game to take the lead and to equalise with the penalty (that wasn’t given). But we give away poor goals.
“It’s two games after a pretty good run when everyone was positive about the progression. It’s two games where, if we’re being honest, we’ve conceded some goals that make it very, very difficult to get anything from a Premier League football match.
“We know underneath that there’s been some good things. They’re never going to be over highlighted when the game doesn’t go your way, and rightly so.
“We know we’re doing some things well. There have been times where we’ve looked like we can be a really effective side. You can look at the chance we created for Jack Clarke (against Everton early on) and our ability to carve a really good defensive system open. We’ve had moments of control in each game and look like we can work the opposition really hard. We’ve had moments where we’ve pressed really aggressively and got lots of high regains. And we’ve had moment where we’ve defended with lots of bodies back behind the ball and looked like we can be resolute defensively. But of course there have been too many moments that have gone in the other direction. It’s about trying to be more consistent.
“It’s hard to keep at your very, very best when you have things going against you, but that’s what we have to do because it’s not the last mistake we’re going to make this season.
“You get set-backs in football, you get set-backs in life, but it’s about how you get back up again.”
