Disappointing to lose at home but to what extent do you think this tie is still alive?
The result. 1-0 is 1-0, it's not 10-0. The result is open. It's as simple as that.
We wouldn't be the first team to lose 1-0 at home and then win the tie away. So why
shouldn't we believe?
Giovani Lo Celso continues to get better and better?
Until the fuel is over. I think you are right. He is playing fantastic. He played in the
middle, played so well. He got a yellow card which is a huge limitation for a player in
that position against a fast team in transitions. He managed it so, so well.
Then in the last 20 minutes he came to the inside of the right side and again he was
phenomenal with and without the ball. He's had an incredible evolution since I arrived.
You can see by my options that he wasn't the first option for me when I arrived. He was
barely coming from the bench. Very quiet boy. He's more about work than speaking.
Step by step I think he's phenomenal. Against Villa was the same, he was injured, on the
bench and comes on for the last half an hour, he's playing, really, really well.
On the day was it that Spurs were bad or that Leipzig were good?
You think we were bad?
The result says you lost at home?
Ok, I'm not going to answer you because I don't like your question and I think your
question is out of order.
Have you see enough in the last 20 minutes to make you confident you'll go through to
the next round?
Come on. Lamela didn't train once. Lamela didn't train once with the team. He did the
warm-up yesterday for the open session for the cameras to look at him and get him. He
didn't train one single time with the team. That is the player that you saw play the last
20 minutes like he did.
Lucas and Bergwijn what you saw in the end, two very tired players. Two players who gave
absolutely everything. Two days ago when we played at Villa and now. We are the only ones
who now have to play the next game on Saturday morning. The thing that keeps me confident
is the spirit, the mentality of my players. It's what they are, not just as players, but
especially what they are as guys, as a group.
Fantastic group of players. If your colleague wants to be fair and look at the situation
with different eyes, he wouldn't make me that question, but I try to help. They played with
Werner, Schick, Nkunku. Nkunku out, Schick out after 70 minutes of incredible effort,
workrate and intensity they brought to the game. In comes Forsberg, Poulsen, Haidara,
they have Lookman on the bench.
We have on the bench one attacking player who didn't train once with us who is a winger.
When I tried in the last part of the game to play with Lucas and Bergwijn through the
middle, changing the shape of the team, I played with two players who were tired. They
were very tired. So if you want to analyse the football game the way that gentleman wants
to analyse it's so, so easy. It's 1-0, the team that scored won the game, let's go home
everybody because that's the reality of football.
If we want to analyse it a bit more with different eyes, you have to look at our situation and
if you want to make an exercise of football, you can maybe think, Champions
League game, Barcelona without Messi, Suarez and Griezmann.
Make that exercise, or if you want to look to Leipzig, maybe not Leipzig because they
have six or seven different attacking players, but let's say Liverpool, no Salah, Mane or
Firmino. They would still have Origi. We are still in a very difficult situation, but I
am so, so proud of the players.
What worries me is that this is going to be the situation until the end of the season.
If this is going to be the situation with a couple of matches I would say ok we're in
a difficult situation now but when we play the next game in two weeks against Wolves
the situation will be different. The situation is going to be exactly the same. Exactly the
same so I'm so proud of the players.
In speaking about the Champions League and the next match against Leipzig, one thing
I can guarantee because that is the mentality of the players is that even with I don't know
who playing in attack we are going to fight until our limits.
Dele Alli looked angry when you took him off?
I think he was angry with his performance. Not with me. I think he understood why I took
him off and the team improved.
It looked like Dele played up front at times, do you seem him as a viable option to play
there while Harry and Sonny are missing?
It is difficult. It is even difficult to tell you the direction we are going in the near
future because it is big question marks. We are going to for sure change systems and shapes
according to the players we have available for the match.
We are going to try this sort of thing we tried with Lamela. He cannot play from the
beginning, but he can come for the last 20 minutes which was a little bit what I did
against Southampton. I had no Bergwijn in the game. I had only Lucas and Sonny and I
wait and wait and wait for Dele Alli, to bring Dele Alli on for the last 20 minutes and then
Dele Alli change the game against Southampton.
We are speaking about a very difficult situation and if I could, if I could I would move immediately
to the first of July. And the first of July with Harry Kane, with Sissoko, with Son, with
Bergwijn, with Lucas, with Lamela. I would love to be on the first of July, but I am not.
I am.. 19th February, so we have to fight until the end, I feel really really proud of the boys
I arrived here 12 points behind the fourth. We are one point behind the fourth and we
are going to fight. But as I was saying in some television.
The Chelsea players were watching this game on TV, with nice sparkling water, with lemons
and biscuits enjoying the game and we play Saturday at 12 o'clock. Thank you so much
for the choice. We cannot even sleep well until 10.30 or 11. We have to wake up at 7.30
for the game.