How frustrating was it to go 1-0 down to a set-piece after defending so well in the first half?
To concede a set piece was galling because we had done a really good job for long periods and we were going to have to do it again. We gave the ball away on the left hand side and they broke, we gave away a free-kick and maybe tonight, we didn’t have the stature of maybe what we have had in other games tonight. It was always going to be a little bit short for us. Disappointing, the goal we lost, because it was a poor one to lose against a side who can score some great goals. That was a poor one for us.
What is the issue with Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Nayef Aguerd?How long before the game did you know?
I knew in the morning that there had been sickness and one of them had a real high temperature. One of them had to go away at 11 o’clock and the other two at left at two o’clock today, once they weren’t going to get any better. We had given them a chance in the morning to recover, sleep longer, see how they were. They were in Manchester with the rest of the team so we had to send them away in cars later this afternoon to go home.
How can you make sure they are okay for Sunday’s game with Manchester United?
I have got to hope that they are, two of them we are not sure if it is maybe a bit of food poisoning that they have maybe picked up at the training ground or whether it was at the hotel and one them we think has got a virus. I’m not a doctor, I don’t know if antibiotics can fix it that quickly or how you work it, I’m not quite sure. Hopefully, they will have a chance for the weekend. Hopefully, they will have a chance for the weekend. I think the biggest thing I would have to say, I have to praise the players who came in and did such a good job. For long period against a really good team, we made it quite difficult. The second goal was probably the first time we let the game get opened up for Haaland to run in behind. We gave the ball away ourselves, played up and it was dropped off and you get a chance to go through and the third goal was a deflection. All in all, it’s not a good result but performances at this time of year, do they matter? Not as much as they do earlier on. I do think that if you tend to have good performances, it tends to lead to good results. Let’s hope we have got a few good results to go.
What was Vladimir Coufal’s injury?
He felt his hamstring, so we’re not sure. We’ll get him scanned in the morning, we’ll see how he is.
Did you have any others in the squad struggling from the illness?
No. There was another staff member who had sickness as well so that’s why we were worried if it was a bug or food poisoning, we weren’t sure what it was.
How frustrating is it that you have conceded from individual errors recently?
I think football clubs will always have individual errors, it tends to be the way. Collective ones, it is better when they are collective because you can work on it and try and get them right together. There were a couple of individual errors, which we didn’t defend the cross into the back post well enough. Ake gets a goal, the second one, we give it away when we are in a good position. The third, you couldn’t do much about, the boy takes a great volley, but it takes a deflection. I think individual errors are part of it, there have been too many this year. I agree with that.
Pep Guardiola praised your side’s defensive structure? Does that first half performance give you encouragement?
I wish he was praising our attacking play as well, but I couldn’t say that. I’d say our defensive structure was really good today, but our attacking play when we got the ball had to be much better to cause them enough problems. We didn’t cause them enough, very, very minimal problems to be honest. But the other side of it, we tried to do as good of a job as we could. We’ve got to remember, Bayern Munich have been there and have been turned over. Arsenal have been here and been turned over, so I don’t think you can kid yourself and just turn up here and without any structure to what you do. I thought in the main, the players who were in tonight have done a really good job.
