It's only pre-season, but how do you feel after that? Calm? Angry? Relaxed?
"Far from relaxed. I think we deserved to lose – which is fair enough – because we were simply not good enough. We were absolutely not competitive. The worrying part is the level of commitment, physically and mentally, for this match was not the same, it was far higher for Arsenal than us.
"We can argue they played with I think their strongest line-up; they've had now together several weeks and for more than one year. They've strengthened their line-up, played the same structure, and this is the line-up they'll try to start Premier League games.
"It was not our strongest lineup and this is part of an explanation but only a little part. The other part is worrying."
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Will you be ready in two weeks for the start of the Premier League season?
"I can not guarantee. I saw today a team in Arsenal who are mentally committed to an idea of playing, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match.
"Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options. We have players that have left and I think at the moment that's obvious."
Does this result highlight the need for incomings and is there an update on Jules Kounde?
"There is no update, no update. The analysing of the season does not change because of this game. Unfortunately, it proved my point and the last week proves my point. I would prefer to not be right and I did everything to prove myself wrong, but at the moment I feel I was right when I look at the last season and at the parts of the game where we struggled and how we struggled.
"We got sanctioned and players left us, we know that some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is. We had an urgent appeal for quality players and a huge amount of quality players. We've got two quality players – that is no doubt – but we are not competitive like this and unfortunately, we could see it today."
If feels like it's been a long tour, has it been difficult environment?
"It was long, it was long for sure. We could feel the energy level drop after Las Vegas and after the Charlotte game because of the amount of travelling, very humidity, and very hot temperature. It made it tough because it's now been two weeks on the road.
"It's also a point but it’s a little point or explanation why we did not look fresh. I did not expect it today. I thought we lowered a little bit the intensity in training the last days, but not in a way where we could expect fresh legs. So that was not the biggest surprise, just the difference between tired and playing like this."
Are you concerned about goalscoring?
"For sure. If you look at the first half, it was even hard to escape our half in a productive way and to play in the opponent’s half in a positive way and create chances – we had one chance with a shot [that hit the post].
"But the amount of dangerous situations, the amount of one against ones, the amount of accelerations in the second half, where we dominated the game and were the better team in the first 22 minutes, but with their first action they score and we didn't have too many dangerous situations [after that].
"Listen, it's the same players, so why should anything change? We will see hopefully development but at the moment, we have the same issues because we have the same players."
Just on that, do you look at Liverpool and Man City...
"Given our last two weeks, our game today, we should not mention the two teams in front of us. We got absolutely beaten by a team that does not play Champions League football next season and finished behind us. But at the moment, they seem far ahead of us."
We got to see Kalidou Koulibaly tonight, thoughts on his performance?
"He was the best player on the pitch for us."
Did that make you feel a bit more optimistic?
"On an evening where nothing felt good, this felt very good."
How much do you find that pre-season actually influences the season proper?
"My personal feeling, I don’t know if I ever lost a match in pre-season 4-0. I can't remember not winning two matches in a row in pre-season. I’m a huge fan of a strong pre-season in everything: atmosphere, feeling, performance, belief.
"I am superstitious but not in a way that I say bad pre-season has to mean a bad season. That makes no sense to me. I am in it, a part of it, and need to find solutions.
"We fly home now and we have one-and-a-half days only, on Tuesday we need to present solutions, we need to present actions. Me and the coaching staff, together with the team, need to step up and find a way through this because it hurts at the moment."
You started with a back four and then switched to a back three, what do you think your defensive identity will be?
"We discussed this many times. If you want to play three at the back you need to have three in the back. If you don’t, it’s not worth playing three in the back.
"Given Kalidou was only ready for 25 mins today and given who was available, we tried to play 4-4-2. I think it was not a structural problem because we conceded two goals with the back five and two sixes, which we are used to playing.
"It was behaviour in the structure. That’s much more important how we behave. We need to be more lively and aggressive. The level of commitment, the level of physical input, was simply not enough.
"The adaption of position, the joy of helping each other, the joy of working hard together was what was missing. It’s not a moment to destroy my group because they are a very nice and hard-working group, this will not change.
"But for today, this is the honest analysis of the game. It’s not worth talking around this. It was like this today."
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