On finding that ‘ideal balance’…
I think in the last 11 games we’ve hardly conceded chances. But in the period before that, when we lost a lot of games, we created a lot of chances but we conceded more chances than we are conceding recently. Those were more open games where maybe people look back at it now, ‘Please give us those open games again.’ But the results weren’t as we wanted them to be. So, we have to find a balance and we will because I can see the players growing, they get more and more belief again and they are getting fitter, as I’ve mentioned many times. We are just waiting for a moment – because we are doing well, like you just said – where we can kick-start our season even more than we’ve done in the recent 11 games.
On whether Conor Bradley’s injury has ‘changed thoughts’ about plans in the January transfer window…
I think everyone is aligned about the challenges we are facing. That’s not to say that we are going to act, but everyone is aligned on what we are facing. There’s no-one who has a different opinion about it. But that’s not to say that anything is going to happen.
On crossing into the box and getting midfielders ‘closer to the goal’…
Definitely. We do give crosses but I think we could give more. If you don’t give them enough, if you don’t go through the outside enough, then players who are in front of goal tend to feel, ‘I haven’t touched the ball for a long time, let me go [ask] for the ball.’ If that is then actually the moment where we cross then we are down, underloaded. We will always be underloaded in the box of the other team because they bring – including the goalkeeper – 11 and I’m not even exaggerating. There are so many times [where there] are 11 players of the other team in the box. I don’t think I will ever come to a situation that I’m asking Ali [Becker] to attack the box as well, so I think we will always be underloaded in the box of the other team. But sometimes we are underloaded a bit too much.
But as we say in Holland, it’s a chain reaction, so it comes from certain things. If you are waiting in the box and crosses don’t come often enough, you try to be involved in the game. It’s definitely one of the things you are aware of and we are aware of as well. But sometimes it’s the type of players you have. I think most of our midfielders like to have the ball in their feet and these players need to know from each other, ‘Yes, you’re really good in that but we need you also to attack the box.’ That is one of the things that is so obvious that I can even say it over here. That is something we do speak about, yes.
