Ruben: We’re improving but there’s work to do

Ruben, for the second week in a row you’re in front in an away game, you seem to be in control of the situation and then in the space of no time, the game goes away from you. I know you’ll be delighted to get something, but how much of a problem is it that you’ve done the same thing again?“We have a lot of problems. We are just in the beginning. I know that sometimes the results show to people that we are improving, and we are improving, but we have a lot to do. You can divide the game in the final 10 minutes. Also, when we have to take out Harry Maguire and Casemiro at the same time, then suffer two goals… then losing Ben [Sesko]. Even before the second goal with the big opportunity, then to overcome everything and manage to score is a good thing. But if you look at the rest of the game, we were comfortable, but I think we should do better – be more aggressive, feeling the environment in the stadium that the three points were there, the space was there, and I think we felt too comfortable during the game and we need to expect that in one play, anything can happen and change the mood of the stadium. Today was that. I think we control the game well, but we need to do better because the game was there to take.”

Matthijs de Ligt has been an ever-present for you this season. What did you make of his goal? It’s a small point, but he’s not in the leadership group – I am wondering if is there is a good reason for that ?
“No, there are players that lead in the way they play, and then there are players that have a different involvement in everything that happened at Carrington. So I’, just trying to put different styles on the leadership group. But in the end, everyone has to be a leader and to help each other. I think he’s doing really well, he’s really aggressive, he’s defending well. I think he has more quality with the ball than he’s showing because he’s still at the point that he doesn’t want to make mistakes with the ball and he’s doing that really well because that is a smart thing for a player to do. But when we reach a very good point, our three centre-backs will control the tempo and the quality of the game. We have, like I said, a lot of things to do in our team.”