Press news in....

Here is the boss...

------------------------------------------------------------------

DF: Sadly, we have a few knock. Ralf Fährmann has a knee problem, he is not available.

DF: Emi Buendia is out, he has some quad problems. Ben Godfrey suspended of course, Mario Vrancic has a knock as well against his chin.

DF: More breaks and less games would definitely help with the quality of the games. It's tricky for the coach in terms of man management. We're only allowed to play 11 players and not all the players can play.

DF: In other countries, you can travel with squads of 20.

DF: It's always important for the mood and the confidence to get a win. It was a tight result and good to get it over the line. We want to build on this.

DF: In our situation, we can't spend that much money. On the other hand, the good thing is the pressure is not so high. You are the underdog and are expected to finish in position 20. But we are motivated and we want to stay in this league.

DF: I was blessed enough to play for the title in a league and lifted the title twice. So I know how to win a league.
But I've been involved in relegation battles. I know what it's like. But a football game is always the same.

DF: We have to be realistic. When you get promoted into the best league in the world, you have to handle the expectations a little bit. We had the biggest injury crisis of all our competitors at this level as well. We didn't have a lot of luck. We know it will be a big sensation, maybe a miracle that we stay in this league.

DF: We are respectful, we know we face a top-class club. They have top-class players and such a successful coach. But we've shown we can win points against any opponent.

DF: I don't expect to be doing any more business. We won't fall asleep and if there is an opportunity, we may look to improve the squad. I don't expect this.

DF: It's too early to say with Emi. He was on the training pitch today but he couldn't run. He will also probably be out for the FA Cup game but hopefully back for the next league game.

DF: It's a blow that he's not available but we have to handle it.

DF: It's not a headache. I trust my players and my whole squad. It's a good chance for another player to shine. But he is a big miss.

DF: Duda still needs to build towards 100% fitness. He covered unbelievable distance on Saturday. His workload was remarkable. It also helped that I could bring him off and rest. He's capable to go further on but we will be careful with him.

DF: It was an unbelievably tough call to take Grant out and bring Ben back in. Ben was so important for us for about a year. He had this injury and Grant came in and delivered. To play Ben again and leave Grant out was so tough.

DF: Grant has stayed focused and professional. We needed him for the last 20 minutes and he was fully-motivated for that.

DF: You learn the most out of a not-so perfect game. We were self-critical and this experience [v Man Utd] will help us at Tottenham.

DF: Kane is a miss for them but Son is coming in. He's a key player, Lucas Moura as well. They have top-class players.

DF: Lukas Rupp is in a good physical shape. He didn't play many minutes over the festive period. He could start, he still needs to adapt.

DF: A relegation battle is good to experience. It shows the character and personality of the players. We were praised a lot last season for that and we've showed it again this season.

DF: We have unbelievable togetherness and team spirit.

----------------------------------------------------------------

That's all from the boss this afternoon! Thank-you for following the live blog.

Posted By: DrDublin on January 21st 2020 at 13:54:23

Message Thread

Reply to Message

In order to add a post to the WotB Message Board you must be a registered WotB user.

If you are not yet registered then please visit the registration page. You should ensure that their browser is setup to accept cookies.

Log in