About the VAR decision, what's your take?
I would really be interested what you all think about it...
Oh, I know, but I know already what I think.
You looked angry about it.
No, not at first, I calmed everyone down pretty much,
because I saw immediately...
I'm not sure if he can admit that, but Mr Atkinson,
you saw it in the first moments, then he saw it could be a goal,
then they scored the goal, and immediately he showed VAR.
So my coaches were already on their toes, and I said, "Calm down, VAR is checking."
and I was 100 per cent sure VAR would overrule it.
But now you see we have the problem.
So the ref let the game run because he has VAR,
but the VAR says then it was not clear,
so, "It could say it was not a foul, so I don’t overrule it."
This makes not too much sense, we don’t get anything back from that
but it's a clear VAR issue in how we deal with it in the moment.
I am not angry or whatever, it's just...wow.
I saw it clearly, it was a foul and nothing else.
You know in England sometimes with challenges
you say, "Come on, it's proper football" or whatever.
It was a foul.
I am sure Mr Atkinson would have whistled if there was no VAR, but now we let it go
because somebody else can make the decision,
but somebody else is not making the decision, because he says, "Yeah..."
So like the penalty Man City didn't get yesterday.
Come on, that's a 100 per cent penalty and nothing else.
The hands are there, he pushes him down, and they say, "Yeah, but....VAR.
"Not clear enough that I overrule you, so we have to make..."
They sit in the studio, they see it,
come on, just take it away and everything is fine.
Like it was with our goal. I didn't see it back, I only heard,
that both players were there with the hand,
and when both are there and the other one is first,
it should have been allowed. I don't know 100 per cent if that's right or not.
Somebody told me.
We cannot change it anymore, but pretty much everything went against us,
our own performance in the first half as well,
and we still didn’t get beat and could have won the game, so...
With this part of the assessment I am fine, but with the performance of the first half,
of course not. That’s just not how it should be.
It’s clear that it’s easier for United in a situation like that, coming here, playing 5-3-2
and really properly fight and everybody is happy about that, easy to excite the crowd.
We were not really there, we did not get the momentum of the first half -
they had it, but we still had the biggest chance of the first half with the counter-attack
when Sadio plays the ball to Bobby.
I wouldn’t say it was a ‘no-brainer’, but it was a big chance.
Then at half-time we could adjust a few things
and it was immediately better through little position changes and we scored a goal.
In the end we have to be happy with the point, that’s clear,
but we are not happy with the performance overall.
But that’s OK, that’s sometimes like it is.
Not happy with the overall performance
but are you pleased with the impact your subs had?
Yeah, very important today that we could do it like that.
that the boys are in the shape that they are.
Coming on, being fresh, doing the job, being immediately in the game,
doing the job, being in between the lines.
The set-up of United was really clear, they were all with an outstanding attitude today
and it was ‘pass the ball there’,
Young is jumping on Trent and stuff like that because we were not really inspired.
We did all the predictable things
and they could defend the predictable things - that’s how it is.
We were not at all unpredictable, when we could have turned the other way around,
because we were not orientated, like kind of impressed with the challenges they made,
we didn’t play real football.
But then with just Hendo a bit higher we then immediately had the ball
and then, first, the two guys in between the lines,
which helped massively and caused them problems.
We didn't have chance after chance, but we deserved that goal,
I think we are all agreed about that.
Then Naby was on, helped as well, fresh legs, being there, passing safe
and not always doing the obvious things, moving higher and passing the ball,
and that’s how the goal happened.
We can pass the ball to Robbo and he has to run sideways
and cannot cross the ball, or you can pass it exactly in that way
and he can make the cross with his first touch and we can score the goal.
So the little details are important.
We were better with the three boys coming on, that helped a lot
and I’m happy about that,
especially, of course, about the fact that Adam scored this goal, a very important one.
All good.
Jürgen, you've been here five times now without winning,
you mentioned United's style, does it frustrate you the way they were playing against you?
Why should it frustrate me?
I’m not the person who should be frustrated by Man United’s style.
It's just a fact when we come here.
This year, last year and the year before - they just defend, that’s how it is.
It’s OK and not a criticism, it’s just a fact. You see it, everybody is happy.
When you think about when United plays against Liverpool,
you think both teams are trying like this and that, but it’s not.
Again, the quality - we are the one team,
everybody is on their toes when United plays against us.
That’s why, with the quality they have, set up like they set up, it’s really difficult.
That’s no excuse, we expect really to do better,
I thought we could do better today, but we didn’t.
But you cannot play like this against each team, obviously,
like the way they played today.
How I said, it’s nothing for me to speak about.
Is that a compliment to you, that they...?
Yeah, we don't have to say it's a compliment, it's just...
We are a good team and if we play against somebody,
it is normal people think about how they can stop us. That’s how it is.
I think we had a big say in that in the first half,
we stopped ourselves pretty much...by ourselves.
But, of course, United defended really well
and then they have the speed with James and Rashford, that's just uncomfortable.
However you want to protect it, they only chip the ball in behind
and then the race is on, and that’s not cool.
But that’s only one part and we defended that OK.
You cannot defend that perfect,
because you lose the ball, bang - then they shoot it in behind.
We should have played much better football, that’s what we expect of ourselves.
So no criticism or judgement of United, it’s just about us.
Jürgen, presumably you weren't expecting to win all 38 games,
so is it just a case of ticking off the matches and seeing where you are with ten to go?
Because you're still in a very good position.
I don't think that far, to be honest.
If you look back on a season and say
where was it possible to lose a point or two or whatever,
for us United is a place [that can happen].
There are worse things that can happen than getting a point here.
Some teams will lose here, 100 per cent. They will find [themselves] back on track
and all that stuff, and when all of their players are back that’s a real force.
We never thought about the 17 games [winning streak]
and now we will not now start thinking about the one which we didn’t win.
We spoke about it already, because we have a game on Wednesday.
We expect much more from ourselves, but the result is the result of the performance.
We could have won today, but it was not like we were really unlucky that we didn’t win.
We have to play better football, then we deserve to win a game more.
If you deserve it more, it's more likely that you'll do it,
and today we deserved a point and could have won, but that's not enough at United.
Jürgen, just on the disallowed goal, as a manager how frustrating is it
that VAR is supposed to be there to reduce these controversial incidents,
and yet here today...
To be honest, I really think the goal we scored is a general thing we have to talk about,
but we cannot talk about every VAR decision.
How the process is, that's important.
I cannot now change it and say, "I want that to be a penalty and that's not,
"that's handball and that's not handball."
I cannot do that and I will not do that.
So in general I think it's good that we have VAR.
In the moment it looks like the only thing where it really works 100 per cent is handball.
Because they made the rule that if a hand is somehow involved in a goal - disallowed.
So that's really easy now, you touch the ball in whatever moment - bang.
Offside, it works pretty well I would say, even if people are not happy
that now this much offside is offside, but for me, I can accept that easily.
But the process that the ref makes the decision, or not a decision,
because they have VAR, and then VAR says, "No, it's fine" - that doesn't work.
Sorry?
It's confusing.
I'm not sure if it's confusing, I would say it's easy to change,
on the pitch the ref is deciding, but then the ref thinks, "Let it run, we have VAR."
And then VAR said, "You let it run, so I won't overrule it
"because it wasn't an obvious mistake."
Does that make sense? I'm not sure if my English is good enough,
but that's the problem in that specific situation.
You let it run, you think, "Play on, we have VAR",
VAR is saying, "You let it play on, so..."
That's the problem. The other things, handball and stuff, we cannot change.
I want clarity in offside and all these things,
goal-line technology and all that stuff helps, absolutely,
but as long as people have so much influence...
Because now VAR isn't the problem, the person is the problem.
You see it, but you don't make a decision - that makes no sense.
We have to, whatever, make the decision, you have three different angles -
"Oh, yes - bang."
You saw it back, do you think it was a foul on Divock?
So how can he not say it's a foul then? For me it was so clear, and you think...
I was 100 per cent sure, I calmed the whole bench down, "VAR is in charge",
and then I was so surprised that I couldn't even be angry afterwards,
I was like, "Wow, that's now a massive misunderstanding."