First of all, do you expect to be in charge on Sunday again and what have you been told?
Yeah, so I've been having clear communication every day with Victor and expect to be in charge on Sunday.
It is a quick turnaround, so will it be the same approach to this game on Sunday or do you expect it to become maybe more of a tactical battle, given the fact that you're playing each other so quickly?
Yeah, it's a bit of an unusual situation playing back-to-back games, but like before there may be one or two tweaks, but nothing we can change majorly with the time we have with the players. They’ve got three game over seven days so it's about recovery and regeneration, but if we can get some work done tomorrow, and a bit of shape, maybe.
How have the players responded to you and your team over the course of the last few days and how special will it be for you on Sunday to lead this team out?
The players are amazing. The players are amazing. They're a good group of players to work with. They're hard-working, they're honest, and they're responding really, really well. All the staff, even the medical staff, Rob Price’s staff, the coaching staff, they’ve been brilliant. Elland Road is a special place, I know that, and the fans, we’re going to need the fans are behind us and it's going to be a tough game, but it'd be a pleasure to take the team at Elland Road, for sure.
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There are quite a few injuries, we know the long-term injuries but what can you tell us more about the likes of Marc Roca, Liam Cooper, even Willy Gnonto the other day, Luis Sinisterra and obviously Pascal Struijk, are they going to be involved this weekend?
Okay, so the long-term injuries are progressing well. They're the same. Pascal got concussion so the medical team are following the concussion protocols. So he’ll miss the game Sunday, which is the right decision. Liam and Marc we’re still assessing, and we'll see if we can get them involved on Sunday so that's taking a bit of time. And Luis was a slightly different injury, we think he’ll be okay, but we're still going to assess whether it's too early for him.
Are you able to say what his injuries are?
Just some slight muscle injuries, really. For me, it's about protecting players first and foremost, so we don't want to take any risks with any players. It’s a long season and we need to look after them.
How much individual coaching have you managed with players, you’ll know some of the younger ones but the senior players, have you managed to speak to them individually and coach them?:
I think in such a busy week, most of the individual coaching is conversations with the players around video and around clips and around the slight tactical changes we might want or don't want. I’ve had good meetings with all the players and the leadership group. It’s been brilliant.
What's your footballing philosophy, Michael, I know you won’t make wholesale changes but obviously you've got your ideas how the game played?
I enjoy winning and I enjoy scoring goals. Hopefully you can see that and to be brave and to be aggressive and take the game to the opposition without giving too much tactical philosophy away, I think you can see that.
Which players have responded very well to you?
All of them are helping, all of them. What's really good is all the senior players are helping younger players. In these times of change, some of the senior players have gone through this before and it helps the younger players to be calm and relaxed and deal with the change well. So it's all about being in this moment.
You always come across as a humble guy, Michael, but you have to be a bit more forceful and adapt to your personality at all to deal with what is obviously a pressure situation?
It depends what you mean by forceful if that means making strong decisions then I've no problem with that. Having been calm and polite with senior players to make strong decisions, I think I am a strong decision maker. So shouting and being aggressive, I don't think it means that approach. It's more about making strong decisions at the right time.
Eric ten Hag was furious with the start to both halve, it probably isn't going to be the same on Sunday but how prepared are you for a bit different game or certainly approach from Manchester United?
I got the staff in after the game and said it was a really, really good game. We did well. The club should be proud of the fans should be proud, but it's still one point. And this is another chance to try and get three points for the club. And we have to go into this game as a fresh game and think about in a fresh way. Whatever happened in the last game for me is now closed, the book’s closed on that, we will go again Sunday and we try and get three points.
We know you're in charge for Sunday that have you had to, in your mind, make a plan just in case it continues into next week as well?
No, I'm not planning for anything other than day-to-day communication with Victor, communication with the board on a day-to-day basis. I'm just doing the best I can do in the short term.
Do you actually change that much in terms of how the team played at Old Trafford from how Jesse was doing things?
No, when we spoke before I said there might be some tweaks. I think there's some tweaks in how we approach the game and some tweaks of how we set up a structure. But there's no point me changing that much because there's some really good things about this team that was built before and it's about taking those good things and maybe put a little bit of my stamp on the team.
In terms of the job going forward what kind of situation is a new manager coming into?
A good group, a good staff group and a good club.
What's your take on the mental state of the group, so much has been made of that over the past year or so, but we know there's a lot of big characters in there that have been through testing times in football. So where are they at right now?
They're excited. I said we were excited about going to Old Trafford and playing against Manchester United and they're really excited to go in to Elland Road and go against Manchester United again. It's an opportunity for three points and they should be excited by the moment and I know that that will get behind the team and push the team and everyone will be excited about the game.
Have your U21s player been involved in training over the past couple of days and have you seen anything in them that suggests that with you in charge, they might think there's a chance for some minutes?
Competition is healthy at a football club. At times we've had when we've needed to put the 21s in to help us with training, they've been good. They've been professional, which is important.
When you took the U21s job in the summer, what was your long term ambition? Do you want to be a frontline top flight manager?
I was asked that a lot of times, but I've always had the philosophy look after today and tomorrow looks after itself. I just want to do the best job I can do in the moment and through my career that's all I've ever done and hopefully people that have worked with me or people that have led me will say good things and that's what's most important.
So if you do let each day take care of itself and you continue to progress in your career and you get better and better to the point where somebody offers you a frontline Premier League job. I assume you would take it and would want to take your ambition forward in your career?
The coach needs to match the project in my opinion, if it matches the project. I'm really happy where I'm at, let me be clear, like I said before, I've always been happy in the roles I've done and I've always been happy with my own personal journey to learn. If I'm learning and I'm developing, no problem.
Just in terms of your job this week, as a caretaker manager inheriting a good squad, how much of it is coaching and how much of it is just a psychological element of bringing the best out of these players?
I think that is coaching if I’m honest. I think the part of a head coach is to lead a group of players and a staff team to coach on and off the pitch, to get players into a good place to go and perform. For me, it's all about the players and how we get them into a place to perform. So I think coaching is creating players not robots and I want them to be players.
This challenge of playing a team twice in a week, when you've had a plan that's worked very well for you in midweek. Is there a temptation just to change it to pose them different questions or to broadly go along the same way?
Probably the biggest challenge of a head coach in these moments is to think about probably what the other head coach is going to, a bit like a game of chess, I think, especially playing back-to-back games. That's where I have to be calm and I have to be strong in my decisions to believe in what we can do as a team and focus on our strengths to go and impact this game.
Individually, did you have to prepare yourself mentally for Wednesday night and I guess the exposure of suddenly being on that touchline in front of the crowd like that?
Everyone's asked me that but I think I've been preparing for 20 years, coaching is coaching. And I didn't take any other angle to it than that. If I can set the team up and the team can perform that was my priority.
Have you enjoyed the exposure?
Loved it. Is that allowed?
Weston McKennie made his first start at Old Trafford and his partnership with Tyler Adams it sort of reminded you of what did it together for the USA against England. That must be really encouraging?
Very encouraging, very talented players, very encouraging. When we made that decision that was part of the thinking. We know they know each other and they have a great partnership on and off the pitch and we hoped they’d play as well as they did together. And we hope that they have good performances from all the players again but a lot of thought went into that decision.
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