Is this another game where you are left questioning a VAR decision?
Yes, very strange. The Premier League have come out and called it deliberate handball, which I think everybody would need to a get a bit of an explanation on that. The first thing I would say about it is that I think it’s really inconclusive to say anything. If anything, my view might see it that way, it hits his shoulder if its anything, it’s right on his collarbone. I don’t see how it was chalked off. If it was a handball that leads to a goal, I think we all know that rule, but I definitely don’t see how it was conclusive and I certainly don’t see deliberate which if anything, he may be protecting himself from going onto the post trying to get his arms up to protect [himself]. I’m amazed it’s chalked off but hey, let’s be fair, if this was the first one we were talking about in recent games, we would be saying, hey, this can happen. We’re now talking about three of these, regularly. It’s getting regular.
Are you more baffled by it because Divin Mubama would crash into the post if his hands are not up?
Yes, I agree with you. I am just saying I don’t know what else to say about it because I don’t want to get into trouble, but let’s be fair. You have to start thinking, we’ve had three recently which could’ve all altered [games]. If you said hey, we’ve had our fair share of it, I don’t think we have. I don’t think we have.
Do you feel you lost any kind of momentum when that goal was ruled out?
I think you’re right. I mean at that moment, we had a bit of momentum and we built more momentum. I think when it went against us, we created one or two opportunities but we didn’t creat a great deal after that, no.
What did you make of the performance after maing nine changes for the game?
No, I didn’t enjoy the performance. I didn’t enjoy the first half performance, I thought we were soft. I thought we were easy to play against, but let’s be fair, there’s not a lot in the game at 0-0, there’s nothing much happening and we give away a goal. Boys who watch us a lot, we did exactly the same, I think it was against Crystal Palace. It was so poor. Then, you can lose a goal to a long throw here as we well know, and we’ve not had a great deal of time since Thursday to prepare, but at least we’d done a bit of work to try and defend long throws and you wouldn’t have thought so by watching us today. We had done and I’m really, really disappointed. I’m more disappointed because things can happen, but when you do prepare and you do try and see a strength and think ‘how can we stop it.’ I was so disappointed that the players that they hadn’t dealt with much better than they did do, because they are senior players there who can take responsbility. If all they need to be is manager or coach led, then they have to take leadership on the field. I didn’t feel that they did it on the two or three throw ins that came maybe ten minutes or so before half-time.
Do you feel that perhaps, your players had one eye on Thursday’s second leg with AZ Alkmaar?
No. I think we had a game against Manchester United which we won last Sunday. I think we had a game on Thursday, a semi-final, which we won 2-1. We’ve had nine games in [April], we didn’t have a midweek in April where we didn’t have a game. I think if you said you expected me or any manager to keep rolling the players out. Today was an opportunity, we’ve earned the right because of the result we got at Man United last week. We’ve certainly got ourselves in the semi-finals, so we’ve earned the right from that and the position we’re in. I think I expected our players who hadn’t played for a while to come in and show me and say ‘hey, I should be the one who wears the jersey.’
How is Michail Antonio’s calf injury?
I’ve no idea yet how he is going to be for Thursday yet. But partly to answer the question for, I could put them out and then continue to get more injuries, because we’ve just had a relentless season of games which has been really really difficult to cope with.
Do you have a selection dilemma over who should play with Kurt Zouma on Thursday night between Nayef Aguerd and Angelo Ogbonna?
Yes. I agree with you. We need to get people who are going to be hard to play against and defend and be strong. I didn’t think we were tough enough in a lot of the things we did today.
