..if you don't mind, last night we had
the unusual situation of a manager at QPR criticising the fans
for leaving early, saying the team needed them.
I remember you saying you felt alone a couple of years ago when you saw the fans leaving,
I just wondered, is that still the case?
How important are the fans and how much can they affect you and the team
if they do leave games early?
They can make all the difference, we felt it a week ago in Seville.
So I'm pretty sure in an empty stadium, or at Anfield, we are 3-0 up,
I don't think it would have happened, even though the German derby,
Dortmund-Schalke, showed it in a bit of another way.
But it's much more difficult, so football only really works, in my understanding,
when we all play together, when we all work together, and that involves the crowd.
So we do it only because people are interested - when they leave, it feels strange.
Players don't stand in the stadium and watch, "Oh, the fans have gone home",
but you feel it, and of course, you can imagine,
if you work for television it's different, if you have a crowd around you
or if you're alone in a studio, that's a big difference.
That's how it is for us, of course we can perform better when the atmosphere is there.
I'm happy that I'm not the only person on this planet who sees it like this.
Jürgen, you know what Stoke are all about now, we have this football cliché in England
about going to Stoke on a wet, cold Wednesday night,
which is probably exactly what it's going to be tomorrow night.
What approach do you take going there and what challenge will they be for you?
It's...
Actually when we were there last time the weather was good.
But, erm, at least this time it will be dark, and probably windy.
That's how it is, but Stoke, I can't see it like this,
but Stoke for sure is a difficult place to go,
because really it's a good side, fantastic manager, very experienced manager,
and the team is experienced as well, so that's how it is,
they live for moments like this, if you want,
in these home games, floodlights, atmosphere - stuff like this, it's nice.
But we are not there to enjoy any atmosphere or suffer under any atmosphere,
we go there to get the points, that's 100 per cent clear.
And... That's nice, by the way.
That's 100 per cent clear, and that's what we have to show,
but that it will be difficult? You're right. We know about that.
Mauricio Pochettino conceded the Premier League title over the weekend,
which was interesting, after the draw against West Brom.
14 points behind, do you concede the title race?
I can... I SEE the title race.
We are close enough to see it!
Yeah, I have no clue, I saw the game against Huddersfield,
so, yes, it was deserved that Man City won, but at the end it was not...
like Huddersfield could not have one moment or another.
The last game before that I think City won 1-0, in the Champions League,
so they win, and as long as they win, nobody else has a chance.
If they stop winning and other teams are then in a good moment,
then pretty much each distance, points-wise, is possible.
That you can get them still. But I don't care about that at the moment,
for us - I'm not sure if other teams are doing it -
we want to have the next three, then the next three, then the next three,
because if anybody struggles you need to be there, but not for us in the moment,
they are too far away of course, and if they keep on going like this
nobody has a chance and it's already decided.
Just looking back at last year's game at Stoke, how big a moment was that for you
in terms of your top four hopes and the character the players showed as well?
It was fantastic, actually I don't know 100 per cent,
it was after the international break, was it?
I think so. I had injury problems, we had to change, and we had to change -
or we thought we had to change - the system,
and it didn't work really well, the first half was not a good game for both sides,
but I think Stoke was OK with the way the game went until a specific point,
and so we changed twice in the second half and Phil and Roberto made quite a difference.
It was nice, but I think THE situation of the game was the save of Simon Mignolet.
From half a yard distance or something like that, so it was quite a remarkable game.
I didn't think about it in the preparation, but now when you ask me
obviously there were a few nice situations. Could draw the game, but a goal off Roberto,
nice pass, Gini I think.... Yeah.
And Roberto scored the goal, so, yeah, it was a good day for us.
One of the accusations that was levelled at your team last season
was that you played really well and got good results against the sides in the top six
but sometimes struggled against the so-called "lesser" sides.
But this season you've beaten Crystal Palace, Leicester, West Ham, Southampton -
do you feel like that is an area of progression for the team?
But we didn't win against the top six now, so...
No, we...
Yes, we made progress, 100 per cent,
we became more clinical, more patient in the right way, in specific games.
Very, very important. But last year we had a few really, really good games against...
I don't even want to use that word. ..against the teams which... Yeah, the other teams.
So we had good performances, but we didn't score.
That's happened already this year again,
we could still talk about this but it's not important anymore.
We are now matchday 14,
and we have to consider that the shape was in most moments really good -
did we get all the results? No.
That's 100 per cent true but we feel on a good way.
Really on a good way, and Chelsea is an unbelievably difficult team to play,
and we played them in a manner which was completely different to the last two years.
We won there but it was completely different, we dominated them.
They came here and gave us the ball and said, "OK, come on, try something."
And we were there and did it, so that's fantastic, absolutely fantastic.
But at the end you want to win, or you have to win, but we didn't,
but we still feel - I still feel - that we're on a good way,
and that's what we have to show again and again and again and again.
And at least until the end of January, that is now a really decisive period of the season,
and we need to be 100 per cent spot-on, but my feeling is, we are.
Fitness issues, Dejan was missing at the weekend.
Yes, Dejan probably will be close.
It's not a big thing, it's a little bit of swelling,
we have to figure out what is exactly...
He will try to run, in a few minutes, I spoke to him a second ago.
Emre is back, it was not a big thing but big enough that he couldn't play the last game.
He is back and, yeah, for the squad, for sure.
The run of games you've got now until the end of the year,
and you rested Mane and Firmino on Saturday,
how far ahead are you looking in terms of where you're managing those players?
Is it match by match now?
I think that makes most sense. By the way, we don't "rest", we use our players!
That indicates that there is a rest for another player,
but that was especially not the reason for this last game,
that we thought against Chelsea, "Maybe he needs a rest" or whatever.
No, it was really more that we needed fresh legs against Chelsea,
and that's what we wanted to have, and actually I thought it worked quite well.
So that's very important, it was a very important sign for the squad,
from my side that I showed faith in all the boys, pretty much all,
and it was very important that the boys showed me that they are 100 per cent ready.
So that was good, that was really good,
and probably we will make one or two changes
from the last game to the next game, and maybe not for the next game,
we will see how we deal with that.
It all depends on the impression I get during the games and during the sessions,
and then we make decisions.