Hi, Jürgen.
Firstly, how pleased were you with performance and the crowd being back in?
And secondly, could you speak a little about Harvey Elliott's performance as well?
Everybody was really looking forward to this...
football festival, to this game,
and I think nobody leaves this place today with any kind of disappointment
because I think all of our dreams were fulfilled today, atmosphere-wise.
That was, for sure, the best 12.30pm atmosphere we had.
It was pretty special - really special.
How the game was as well, pretty special, because Burnley are Burnley -
and Burnley cause you problems.
And Burnley did cause us problems.
Obviously, the new idea about football,
let the game flow more or whatever,
I think we will talk about that quite frequently over the year.
But we won the game.
We played a good game, we scored two, could have scored more.
Yes, needed Ali in moments as well, even when the best save he had was offside before,
but it was anyway a sensational save.
And Harvey was part of this performance.
Everybody wants to talk to me about Harvey
and I understand absolutely - when an 18-year-old boy plays such a mature game
I can understand why everyone was asking,
but I was not surprised he played like this.
That is exactly how he has trained now for six or seven weeks
since we are back, since he is back from loan.
Yes, it was good.
Jürgen, there was a kind of reassuring familiarity about Virgil and Joel,
can you sum up what it means having not been together as a unit
and being able to deal with the particular challenge today.
We are not surprised by that because they played together,
they are both really good footballers and that’s how it is.
I can tell you now already that because of the things that happened
during the last year, we needed desperately to bring in the fourth centre-half,
and now we have six with Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips.
We needed that, so they will all play;
the first four will definitely play all together.
We have to mix it up and we will do that, because none of these guys,
especially after a long injury, should now then play all the time three games a week.
We need to find a way to get used to that,
but for this game today there was no chance to change anything from last week
because you needed to be used to each other to face this Burnley team.
It’s really special, really specific and very aggressive and,
as I said, with the new idea - let the game flow - it makes it not easier.
It is the situation, it was a tough game, an intense game,
how it always is against Burnley.
We won it, it was not always like this,
but sometimes as well, so let’s just keep going.
Can I just ask you about the performance of the two full-backs today?
Trent in particular, obviously had his injury problems in the summer but back to his best,
and how well do you think your side dealt with the physical challenge of Burnley?
Yeah, both full-backs had a good game.
Both spectacular, if you want, with two nice [assists] -
Kostas with the cross and Trent with the little cheeky curve ball or whatever for Sadio.
It was a good game. I think everybody thinks both full-backs played a good game,
and in this situation that means they were defensively really good as well
in a really difficult game from a defensive point of view.
In football, usually you have a plan, you have an idea,
how you want to win the ball here or there,
but against Burnley there is no winning the ball here or there.
It is only around the centre-halves where you have to pick the ball up
and we have to protect constantly like crazy.
I cannot remember a high-press situation, it is just not possible,
at least it was not possible today.
But the full-backs were really good, which helped us to win the game.
- Hi, Jürgen. - Hi.
The focus on Virgil's comeback has been more about the defensive aspect,
but just how much of an impact does his distribution have
on the overall way the team can play?
In the second half particularly, those diagonal balls he plays out to the right-hand side,
they created quite a few chances.
Of course, it is really helpful. The package of Virgil van Dijk is really helpful.
I like talking about Virgil but I don’t like when we talk about last season -
everybody saying: ‘Virgil van Dijk didn’t play’.
Just to mention again, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip didn’t play as well,
which didn’t make the situation easier, and people tend to forget how good they are.
No, but of course it’s cool having Virgil back.
He was for sure in moments on the edge today; not physically,
not in a dangerous way, just the intensity of the game was incredible -
especially for the centre-halves.
You are constantly in the air, the ref whistles absolutely nothing,
strikers are in your body.
That was a proper test today and, honestly, I love football,
I love all these challenges, all these kind of things, yes,
but we came from protecting the players slightly more
to letting the game all flow.
There is a grey area in between which for sure we will have to adapt again during the season,
because just now letting the game run doesn’t sound like it makes too much sense.
We still need to talk about different things.
For today it was fine but it was a proper test for the centre-halves
and a proper test for Virgil today.
He passed it and...all good.
Just on that point about letting the game flow,
speaking generally, what would you like to be done?
You've obviously got concerns.
Concerns, I mean I am not the Pope of football or whatever, or any kind of priest
who wants to tell the people what to do - really not.
You might remember it, when we started to talk about the elbow in the challenge,
all of a sudden all challenges in the air, we heard the whistle.
It happened then that players started feeling something in the face
even when nothing touched them, because it helped always to do this…
Now there is a message, like a headline - ‘Let the game flow’.
It started with the penalties - ‘no soft penalties anymore’,
which is absolutely fine.
But we cannot forget that we have to protect the players as well,
and the challenges in the air…
So that's not me saying that, that's common sense.
You are in the air, you go down, you can fix that, no problem,
but if you don't know how to get down because someone is there,
that's a dangerous situation in football.
I don’t say they are all fouls, for sure not, most of the time it is a clear challenge,
but if you do these kind of things constantly…
There are different ways to play football, obviously, that’s all fine,
there were just a few harsh situations.
The goal against Arsenal, that was not dangerous at all,
but how can you keep the goalie away from the situation?
Everybody tells the goalie where to be, but he cannot be there
because if he wants to be, then he has to commit a foul himself.
And that's just not possible.
You would expect in these situations that the ref helps.
Again, we are early in the season and I don’t want to open already the box of Pandora,
I just think we have to speak about these kind of things
because the intensity of the season didn’t even start.
From next week now, the players play internationals.
By the way - FIFA gave the South American teams
the opportunity to play a third game.
They can play the third game on Thursday night in Brazil,
and we can do nothing in the moment against that,
and then we have our match on Saturday or Sunday against Leeds.
So, just to say, the intensity is starting now.
At the moment it’s like still an extended pre-season:
you play a game then you have a week to prepare the next game,
then you have a week to prepare the next game.
After that game against Chelsea, the players play always three games a week until Easter.
That’s the situation.
So, that’s why we cannot make a spectacle of challenges and then on the other side
say, ‘They might be a little bit tired’.
In all these things, the first thing we have to be concerned about
is not the spectacle, it's the player, that’s what I always said.
For us it’s exactly the same, like it is for other teams…
We will have a lot of football games
but we only have them if our players are available.
If they are available,, then we have to make sure
they don’t get hurt in situations we could avoid.