It seemed to be a game that you had under control in the first half, how do you explain the defeat?
Yeah, the disappointment in the dressing room after the match is because of that. I think the performance in the first half we should have been able to come in with a lead and maybe even two goals. If you look at a series of matches where there's been games where we’re in control of the match for major portions, we're not scoring enough goals.
So we have to find a way to continue to be effective in the last third and when we're on top of matches to capitalise. That part left us at halftime, even though I was trying to feed the group to say, ‘Come on, keep playing like this, it's a really good performance, stay on top of the game, and we're going to find a win’.
In the end they made some adjustments, they started chipping balls in behind our midfield line and then they were able to move out of our pressing at moments and then the game was a little bit more in the balance. Even the second half, I don't think was a bad performance, we're just not able to be dangerous.
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How disappointed are you with what happened in your own third with the goals?
I think Coops knows that it wasn't a necessary foul that even if you can play the ball in the field at that moment and then we've taken pride on the set pieces and so disappointing. I think we've been more susceptible on free kicks defensively than corners so we need to keep working on addressing that. We had big chances second half and then even the first half and then even the second half is we can be a little bit sharper in the last third we can we can find more on that as well.
Is it decision making, because there were several times you had overloads in both halves, did you feel you took the wrong options too many times?
Sometimes the clarity of options, the clarity of movement, the quality of the make the last play and decision making, it’s a little combination of everything, but my experience is that it comes together.
It's hard for me we have a young team, we need to keep developing but most of the teams I coach we score goals in bunches and here we just aren't able to reward ourselves in big moments when we create advantages and are often on top of the game.
They’re part of the first half at Villa and we get the red card there's the Everton match, we had moments to get the lead and had pretty big chances. Every game has been a little bit like that. We've got to find a way to get leads and then and then hang on to them.
How would you feel Bamford played and no Junior Firpo in the squad?
So I thought, first of all, that Patrick's clearly physically in good form. So that's a big bonus and then we just need to keep getting him fully game fit and fully ready and sharp. But in general I thought he was okay, I think on a day where he's a little bit sharper fitter, you find the goal and I think he can be part of the solution moving forward to even more. Junior Firpo just picked up a little something after the last game so we wanted to give him the week and he'll be ready by next week.
It’s a shame for Rasmus to end up on the losing side despite arguably his best performance. Were you pleased with him?
Very pleased. He knew it was a big challenge to play Zaha. We had a really good discussion last night about a few different things about his time here and really committing to developing and committing to the difficulty of what this league is and believing in himself. I thought that was easily his best performance in the Leeds kit. So I'm really happy for him and yeah, unlucky on the day that leads to a loss.
How do you make your team more effective in the final third?
We have principles in the attacking third that we need to stick to, we have demands on the movements and connections that we want. We'd like our players to slow down, slow themselves down a little bit and execute with a little bit more quality, but still doing it at a high speed of play. Sometimes it's individual players, like Rodri was great before his injury and he was helping us find chances and goals. We need him but I thought Rodri, he was quite good too.
We like our group a lot. I like this team. I love this team. I really do. And I believe in this team and I know that we're going to improve and keep getting better.
The match was nicely poised early in the second half, you seemed to reach an impasse and both sides cancelled each other out and then it switched. What were you looking to do to change the game in your favour when it was so even?
They were bypassing our midfield with little chip balls, and that was bypassing our pressing so we had to make some adjustments on how we dealt with closing those spaces. It didn't really kill us, they were able to find a few more where they got their winners in one v one situations and so then that brought them into the game a little bit, but there weren't really that many dangerous moments.
I thought Summerville came on the pitch and made a positive impact and I thought it helped get the balance of us being a little bit more dangerous and then we bring Klichy in and right away they score.
In general, we had a little bit of a different match plan, I thought the plan, specifically first half, was executed quite well, we switched to diamond late in the game and we were able to push the game again and so you know keep working with the sophistication of what we're trying to do with our group and know that we have a mentality, we have a work ethic and everything else that is really second to none.
How is morale in the dressing room because after the amazing high of Chelsea to not win a game since then is almost unbelievable. So how are the players coping?
I mean, it's a weird season right now with the break and in some ways the Chelsea game might be bad for us because they kind of put teams on warning that we're playing intensive and then they have to respect us a little bit more.
Every game in this league is tough. I believe we've played better over the last five games than two points. I believe that and I know that. But in the end, we've got to, as a young team, still find ways to reward ourselves in moments and matches so that we can continue to feed belief and confidence into what we're doing.
How important is it that this doesn't spill into a sustained run, these five games without a win?
Even after we beat Chelsea there was a lot of talk about what are the goals for the season and I was calm. In my short time I know how good this league is and I know that every game is a fight and nothing can be taken for granted. So it's unfortunate the way that the games have played out and that we haven't capitalised more on moments where we play well because it's not just today, I can go through several where we've actually been in control of the match for many phases and played quite well but somehow we don't walk away with the points that we feel like we deserve.
You're right. I mean, we just have to live in the moment. We can't allow stress and fear to be built into what we're doing and we have to continue to believe. We will, I know that we have the right kind of people in the dressing room to do that.
Aaronson was brilliant in the first half and he had a great contribution to the first goal but he couldn’t quite maintain it in the second, was it the tactical switch?
I think most opponents are addressing him as someone that they need to keep track of tactically when they play. It means that he has to have quicker solutions sometimes when we win balls or when he’s in an open space that he can release balls and then get it maybe again and be very active with his movement.
I thought he had a good match in general. I thought a lot of our players played quite well. I thought we had good performances. I thought we had a clear execution of the match plan and just now the ability to capitalise on a situation in a game where I felt like we were pretty clearly on top of.
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