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What could the team have done better tonight?
Well apart from the obvious point of not conceding four goals.
I mean obviously the first goal, which was one of those mistakes that happens in football, it didn’t help, but we did well to get back into the game by scoring the goal just before half-time. I thought we were really blown away by two exceptional good goals at the beginning of the second half, and we were playing against a great quality team when they are three goals to one ahead of you, it’s going to be very, very difficult to nail that down. back. It will be quite difficult to recover the only goal.
But what could we do better …? I thought there were quite strange moments in the second half where I thought we passed the ball better than maybe we had in the first half, but as I say, we were fighting that deficit of the goals they scored early in the second. part to give. themselves a very good track.
How difficult is it to defend against such a skilled attacking team? Do you sometimes have to raise your hands and say they were of better quality?
Well you can never raise your hands, we are in the same league. When we played them at Selhurst Park we played 1-1 and we had very good value for that 1-1. So we had no reason to believe … We knew what quality they are, we knew what quality Man United is when we played against them on Wednesday night. You have to find a way to do what you do and have your players give what they can to make sure the quality doesn’t shine through as clearly as it did at times tonight.
But there are times, unfortunately, when you play against teams that have such good quality players on the team, as they are in the way that Bale and Kane were tonight. And when opportunities arise and you take them with such aplomb, sometimes it will be difficult to get back into the game.
Wilf Zaha started at the bank. Was he fit enough to play the whole game, or was he just bringing it up slowly?
Well, first I thought, I thought we played very well against three tough teams (Brighton, Fulham and then Man United) and I think the team has done very well, so I don’t think it would have been the time to necessarily change that with everyone in fit, ready and eager to play, especially with Wilf who has been out for so long and has done so few training sessions.
So I guess the goal has always been to make it easier for him and get him some minutes in tonight’s game. But I thought the right time to do it was at halftime to give him 45 minutes because he knows that we are going to need him in all 10 games in the future to get the results we want. So the sooner we get it back into action, the better.
Was Ebere Eze injured or was it just a tactical decision?
No, he was not injured, but the fact is that someone had to make way for Wilf and we decided that Eberechi would have to be the player to make way for him this time. But no, luckily he is not injured, he will be available for the next game.
Jeff Schlupp came in and played on the right wing – do you see him in a particular position or do you like him for his versatility?
Yes, we like his versatility and to be honest he is capable of playing anywhere in the midfield and can even play as a second striker. That’s the type of player he is. We really appreciate his pace, his strength and his desire to bring the game to the rival.
I think we saw some good signs of that in the second half. The only problem was that we were already 3-1 down, so the signals would never be as exciting as they would have been if the game had been level or if we had been leading.
As someone who has worked with Harry Kane in the past, what do you think of him right now and the player he has become?
Yes very good. I mean the third goal really was the one that killed us to a certain extent and maybe pushed it beyond our reach, not that we didn’t keep trying, but I mean it was probably the goal you thought they are now on the rise and they can relax a little more, just hold the ball and pass it, which they do well.
But I think Harry has improved enormously over the years, but that’s not surprising. You have to remember that in 2016, which is five years ago, a lot of these guys were … Yeah, they were stars already, him and Dele Alli. There was no doubt that we saw the talent that those two guys had.
But they didn’t have the amount of games, the international experience, the amount of European and Champions League experience.
And what’s more, Harry has really added more strings to his bow because he’s able to play in this sort of retreating center-forward position, where when he gets there and gets on the ball, he’s capable of producing very, very passes. good.
But what killed us tonight, I suppose, in the game was that fantastic hit for the third goal, and then his conscience to come in through the back post for the fourth goal.
Obviously a disappointing result, but how happy were you with Luka’s cross and Benteke’s header for the goal? Is that something you really want to see more of?
Yes, it was a very good goal, I couldn’t agree with you more. I thought it was a goal that also gave us a lot of hope at half-time, you know, back in the game.
Because in the first half we managed, even though they had so many good quality players and they played good football, we did relatively well. The goal they scored was one that comes from a clear technical error on our side.
But after that, sadly, the second and third goals showed the quality that they have and we couldn’t match it.
But it’s good to see that Christian is scoring goals now on a regular basis. It’s good to see him get into the penalty area like he did to attack the crosses in that central area of the penalty area where he gets in front of the crowd and sticks his head into the ball.
It will be up to us to make sure we are behind the defenders and play enough balls there for him to give him a chance to reach the bottom of them.
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