The players that might put themselves in your thoughts - what can you say about Mateusz Klich and Luis Sinisterra from an Everton perspective about that?
Well, I think that they both are in good form. I thought both played very well against Barnsley. Klichy's clearly 100% fit and I think that Luis is getting more and more fit. So I think that both will be candidates for the starting XI. And then we'll just try to evaluate physically where guys are at so that we'll see who's ready to repeat and go.
It's good thing that we didn't push too many guys midweek. We'll see how Liam Cooper is doing. Patrick Bamford will be really close for that match. So we should have options.
It's an unusually tight turnout for the Premier League. You don't usually have Saturday-Tuesday, so what you make of that challenge this week?
Yeah, I think you know, in Germany they call when you play midweek, [they have a saying], which means an English week. Because when you sit in German and you watch how many games that the Championship plays and the games in the Premier and everything else, and no winter break, and you know, you know when I came to this league, I knew this was going to be a big challenge, was how to perform game in and game out week in and week out with so many matches. It's one of the reasons that we've tried to build a bigger squad so that we're ready to rotate and we can count on more players and hopefully put fewer players at risk of injury.
Are you still looking to build a bigger squad? What can you tell us on that?
Yeah, I think we're still remaining optimistic and active.
And what about Everton as a side? They drew with Brentford, what do you make of them as an outfit?
Yeah, so they got a good result against Brentford who I think is a really good team and, and I think the way that they played at the end of last year, very pragmatic, but also very clear. They defend very well, they don't give much away. They're good on the counter. So it sets up to be a dangerous game for us. But we have to make sure I think that we're very clear with again, exactly what they want out of the match. Just like we tried to be today and make sure that we don't play into the strategy of what they're trying to do and we play into the strategy of what we want to do.
Just going back to the point about paying every couple of days, is that a good thing for your players, not having long to think about this result and being able to go again fairly soon?
I try to take every experience that we have together and find out what are the learning points, what are the good learning points, what are the bad learning points and where are the opportunities and how do we take steps forward and get stronger for each experience. The best way to learn is play matches. Right? And so even that's why we rotated against Barnsley to get more different players on the match.
And then we had a really good hour discussion about what as a team what that match was and we talked about what was good, what was not as as good and then how each player can move forward and how we can move forward as a group. So my goal is always to have an entire squad that is very clear in their roles and ready to execute and perform at all moments. So certainly this week will be a test of that.
What do you want to see from your team against Everton that you didn't see in the performance against Brighton?
Well, again, it'll be a different match. You know, just like Chelsea was a different match than this. There'll be different tactics involved. There'll be different players. There'll be different match plans. But certainly, again, what I said is that that we don't play foolishly where we're playing into the hands of the opponent and more we're we're playing to our strengths and what we want to achieve on the day.
How much of a challenge is it to keep an entire squad clear on their roles, ready for a game and happy with their lot?
That's my job. That's my job. The job of a manager for me is to, to have a plan to institute football ideas every day, to have principals, to be clear with exactly what the playing model is, for every single player to and for each player to understand their role, their strengths, their weaknesses, and how it fits within what we're trying to build. And then to build a leadership model where everybody feels engaged, where they feel like they matter where they're valued, and where they want to give 100% to the group effort. That's the job of a manager if you asked me pretty simply.
When you look at the next game off the back of a defeat, how do you balance the temptation to react quickly and make changes compared to remaining patient with players that over several weeks have done a pretty good job for you?
Yeah, I mean, in general, I think the whole group is moving forward. Even I think the Barnsley game wasn't perfect, but there was a lot of positives. Despite my reaction to the referee, I'm not too emotional from this. I saw the game pretty clearly. And now I just have to take a little time to think about how guys are where guys are at physically, what we will need specifically for the Everton match and then to put a team on the pitch that I think can manage that game the best that we can.
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