Was that another efficient performance in Europe for your side this season?
Yes. I wouldn’t give it a bigger title than that, that’s for sure. But like all of the games in Europe, they are pretty difficult. There are other reasons tonight. The difference in the pitch, us not being used to it like they are. We controlled lots of parts of the game, got ourselves quite comfortably in front and really abused our opportunities after that to go four or five one up and we didn’t take them. We ended up nearly suffering for it.
Is the aim to take the fact you’ve scored three goals in all of your European games into the Premier League?
Yes, we do. Good performances tend to lead to good results. There’s bits of tonight that were okay, but not all of tonight. This is what we are finding, we are using the competition to try and integrate players, to try and give some players minutes who are short of minutes and trying to introduce a couple of injured players back who have been injured for a wee while, so it is a mixture of all of those things coming into it. We are not quite in the form maybe we want to be in but we’re just about doing enough to get through at the moment.
Was Gianluca Scamacca’s goal exactly why you bought him to the club?
Yes, you are beginning to see a little bit of what we are seeing regularly in training and what he’s got in his locker. I thought his performance wasn’t so good in the opening part, but I thought that later in the first half he held up the ball better, got it wide, bought people into the game better. At the start, I wasn’t so sure about that. His goal will give him confidence, he has scored a goal in just about every game he has started in this competition, maybe not the last one. He’s made a good contribution but we are still looking to find maybe our best rhythm at the moment and the reasons are trying to introduce players, give young players games, getting over injuries. Obviously a lot of new players and trying to get them in and to see exactly what they can do.
How did the pitch play out for you?
I thought the pitch done fine. In the end, at times, the ball came off it very fast and there would be other times where sometimes the ball would move over the line because it sort of getting taken away. Overall, we weren’t used to it as they were and there were bits where you could see how good they were on it. They passed the ball very well. Silkeborg played very well for what I’m going to say is a small team in Denmark. They are doing really well at the moment and they played well.
Were you wary of starting Craig Dawson on this pitch?
Strangely enough, I wasn’t. I was probably more wary about Kurt [Zouma] with his knee and Angelo [Ogbonna] with his knee, coming back from a cruciate, so they were my bigger concerns tonight on this. Daws had a thigh strain, I wasn’t so worried about the surface for Daws, but I was with the other two centre halves about knee operations in the past.
Is Craig Dawson ready now to play in the Premier League?
I think he can start if we needed him. I think he’s still probably a bit behind fitness wise but he’s an old warrior, Daws. He knows how to get through the games, he knows the jobs. As you can see, we’ve been struggling to score from a corner kick at times and right away, Daws comes in and finds the spot and gets it right away. He’s invaluable for those sort of actions and those moments. I was pleased in the main how he played, there was one action at the end where the boy got inside him and they got a shot and we made a save. Apart from that, I thought he sort of came through the game pretty well.
Were you always worried about Michail Antonio on the surface too? He trained in astro turf trainers ahead of the game and during it too.
He was wearing his school shoes yesterday. We said to him, ‘it’s like when you go to school to PE and everybody’s got their kit but you’re the boy whose forgot their training shoes.’ He was wearing astro turf boots, you’d just wear mouldies or studs but he was wearing astro turf shoes. I said ‘what are you doing?’
Did you know why he did it?
It was his choice. He felt that was the best footwear for him. They didn’t look correct.
Would he have wore them if he came on?
Yes, he would. That’s what he thought he was playing in.
Would you want him playing in those?
We told him yesterday but obviously, you want the players to wear what they feel comfortable in and he felt that was the best footwear for him. I didn’t actually see that but that is what the player thought.
Would he be allowed to wear those?
Yes, I think so because it is an artificial surface. It’s the old astro turf boots or shoes we used to have years ago. Most of the players now, you can see, are used to it. None of the Silkeborg players will have wore them.
What did you make of Maxwel Cornet’s performance?
I thought he done okay in the first half, I wasn’t so sure in the second half. But, he’s given us a little bit of energy, he’s given us little bits which we know will get us goals. We’ve seen signs of it in some games and he’s come very close. He’s got himself offside a couple of times tonight and he had an offside in another game which was close as well. I’m quite pleased, he’s still integrating, still getting used to us and we’re still seeing where we think the best place to play him is.
With three assists and two penalties won in Europe, does that give you confidence?
Definitely. If I’m being honest, I’ve not seen it again and I haven’t, it looked like quite a soft penalty to be honest, which helped us greatly because we needed it. I didn’t necessarily think we deserved to go a goal down but we did do and because of that and getting the penalty quickly, was important for us.
Was the main focus trying to get points while you still build form?
Yes. I think really from the start it was. We played the first three Premier League games with one fit centre half and we’re starting to get people back and getting Daws back, who has been out for six weeks and we’ve still not got Ben Johnson yet and we’re waiting on Aguerd coming back. Tonight we weren’t short of midfield and forward players, you can see by the bench. We are short on defenders because I didn’t wanna use Kurt and I didn’t wanna use Angelo on the surface. So that was probably my biggest concern tonight, how I was going to play and get through the game.
