In terms of the social side, you seem a kind of bond-developer between the coaches and the players. Obviously, Jonny was here before, you’ve been here before as well, but is that being cemented as well?
“I think so, yeah. I was chatting yesterday, I think it feels that it’s been a lot longer than the two weeks in a real positive way, the fact that it feels really settled. I think it’s certainly not comfortable and taking it easy, but it feels really settled in terms of knowing the roles. I think the players have got to know us quite quickly and understand what we would like from them and expect from them and they’ve responded fantastically well. So, I think there’s really good relationships, you know, and understanding, which so soon is really positive. But certainly, you need to keep pushing and building on that.”
After two really good performances under you against, let’s say, bigger teams in the title challenge. This team over the years has done that over better teams and then not necessarily lost against lower-ranked teams, but performances have been like, ‘Wow, where’s that come from?’ Considering how good it had been. Is that something in your thinking? Are you concerned about that?
“Yeah, listen, I certainly understand what has gone before, not to speak about that because it’s not for me to talk about that. What’s important with us is that understand what it’s going to take and what it has taken to get results, and, with the respect, as I’ve said of Marco and Fulham as a team, I think it’s as big, if not bigger test as what we’ve had. So, it’s really not a case of looking at this as any different. It’s another game in front of us. We got to put so many things in place and carry the emotion and the intensity and everything that goes into whatever game we play, and show the utmost respect to any team. So, we’re playing at home, we’re playing against Fulham. It’s no different for me. It really can’t be any different, and assuming things of the type of game or anything like that, we’ve got to face the game in front of us, play the game, however it develops. Yeah, we might play well. We might be on top. We might have to defend. We might be up against it. We might go up, we might go down, but that’s something that’s just going into the game with anything else, being prepared to do whatever it takes, and understanding that it’s a real, real challenge. They’re on a great run. They’re not far behind us in the league. They’re there for a reason. It’s a big challenge for us.”
Bruno and Licha are two leaders, everyone would accept that, and you will have others, but are you confident that everyone you send out there on Sunday is aware of basically the mental approach as well? They attitude they’ve got to have?
“Yeah, I am, yeah. It’s easy to talk about it. Let’s be honest. It’s easy for all of us talk about it and we kind of know what needs to be done and how you need to approach it. That’s the beauty of the game. It’s unpredictable. Things can happen within the game. But certainly, in terms of what I’ve seen, the reaction from the last game coming back into training and the focus, if anything, it’s gone up even more and the intensity in the training is a very, very good level. So, that’s all I can ask, you know, is to keep building and improving and taking it into the game.”
