That was a big win for you
In general I’m very pleased with the result. It’s a deserved win. We were very, very good in the first half, very dominant, very strong with the ball, very good in counter-pressing and did not allow counter attacks against one of the most dangerous teams, maybe in Europe, for counter-attacks. That was very, very strong. We lacked a little bit of precision in the box of composure to make it 2-0 to score more goals to decide the match. In the second half it was a bit harder because we had some easy ball losses and lost a little bit of ball possession and of confidence, but we never lost intensity and we never lost the structure to defend and we never lost the intensity to push up high and the courage to defend up high and up front. With that I’m very, very pleased. It is normal. If you play a dominant game like this, if you don’t score the second one it can happen that some minutes arrive where you have to suffer and we were absolutely ready for that mentally and physically and I’m super happy with the effort. We defended excellently. We had half chances, big chances in counter attacks, okay we couldn’t finish them. We conceded only one chance and that was when Tottenham risked a lot and that’s why I’m happy.
We need to create more clear chances. This is the objective and this is the job for me and I blame nobody. This is the job for me and I blame nobody because I never scored in my career in the second and third league. It is the hardest thing, or one of the hardest things in football to score and be calm. But we have trust in our players and we will work to create even more chances and to create more clear chances and to be more effective. But, it is hard to talk the guys into it. No, in general everyone wants to score with every half-chance and chance we have. It is not like this in the Premier League so no worries so far.
Injury for Thiago Silva?
It will be very tight for Sunday. It is only in two days but it is hard to give a diagnosis because I saw him only very quickly in the dressing room with a big strap around his muscle. We will have to wait until tomorrow so we can confirm it but I think for Sunday he is a big doubt and I don’t think that he can play.
The guys took some penalties in the last nine days after training and we have Willy Caballero and the guys pushing the penalty takes to be serious and if you are not then you don’t score. So you get a good picture of who is capable and today it was Mason and Jorginho on the sheet, we put the two names and I said to Jorginho just before the match if he feels confident to take a penalty and he said clearly yes. So we trusted him but I did not discuss with him how to take it.
Three games where you’ve dominated against next to no ambition – is that what you think English football is like?
Well it is also our quality, we have played very strong in the build-up with the back three, who are playing with confidence, don’t forget today Edou [Mendy] was amazing in opening up situations for us when we were under pressure, he did an excellent game. Like I said the back three, also with Andreas coming in during a difficult situation, was amazing. The two sixes between Kovacic and Jorginho played very well together. Also, it was hard to press us high up the pitch because we had the quality and the confidence so this is the aim. If we have the quality to bring the game into the opponent’s half, attack deep and be encouraged and structured enough to have short distances to counter press because mistakes always happen, this is the goal. The better we do it, the harder it is to defend and we defended today against Bergwijn, Son, Lamela and Sissoko and all their guys with intensity. It is a big effort to do it, it is never easy, I totally assure you. I have seen now, in three games, three intense matches and I saw a high intensity for us with the ball and that is what I care about. I have no expectations about other teams and we still have to improve.
