On Dominik Szoboszlai saying ‘fighting spirit wasn’t there’ and if that is a worry…
I should ask him what he means – what he means and what period of time. If he felt that was the whole game, I did not feel this until the moment they scored the 1-0. And I think after they scored the 1-0, we were still in the game. But then we had a throw-in, twice we conceded when we had a throw-in. And they go so fast. In those moments you have to defend sharper. The second goal was a similar one we conceded earlier on this season over here. And the second time that we concede just before half-time, playing Man City. I miss the fighting spirit definitely in the first 10 minutes after half-time and then afterwards it was just a game where both teams accepted it was 4-0. But in that 10, 15 minutes of time, I missed fighting spirit but just the willingness to win your duel, to be there first, to make it difficult for either a pass or a cross or a finish. Yeah, that is something that we definitely have to do better on Wednesday.
On his message to fans after a frustrating day…
We don’t want them to leave early – we have to perform better. That’s the first thing. And we have to show now that we react after a loss like this and after so many disappointments we already had this season. The good thing is the fans have always been supportive, even today; during large spells of the first half they were very loud, before the game they were very loud. So, it’s up to us not only to react for them but also to ourselves. And that’s what we need to do Wednesday, when we again face a very good team, where we again need to play as we did in the first 35 minutes. But in moments of defending, we need to be much more ruthless than we’ve been today.
On whether he feels his players ‘aren’t doing the basics’…
I don’t agree with what you’re saying, but in moments you are completely right. So if you tell to me from the 15 runs Man City are making, 15 times my players don’t run, I disagree with you. But if you simply look at the goals, there I see runs that are not being followed, I see crosses are not being blocked, I see duels in front of goal that are not won. Then you are completely right. That’s not the story of the whole game, but every single time we forget to block a cross, we forget to defend in front of goal, we forget to follow a runner… every single time it’s a goal.
On the period after going 1-0 behind…
Again, in the moments – I don’t think they had a chance after 1-0 until they scored the 2-0 – I completely agree with you. If you look at the way we concede the goal, I see the same pattern. That’s not the pattern over 90 minutes, but that’s a pattern in how we concede a goal and then you sometimes miss the lack of [needing] to understand that if you’re 1-0 down just before half-time, you have to do everything right to go with 1-0 down to half-time. Sometimes it’s about maybe trying to score the 1-1, but in other moments making sure you don’t concede. Like I said, in those 20 minutes the way we defended when we conceded the four goals is absolutely not good enough. And then I see exactly the same things as you.
