Ole's post-match press conference
TranscriptHear what the boss told journalists after our excellent victory over West Ham...
Q: I wanted to talk a little bit about what you said about fine margins and how you said results very much comes down to the fine margins. Again, what do you thing swings it? Is it intensity, fitness or what do you think helps turn the 45 minutes in the first half to the 45 minutes in the second half? A: "Well, there's lots of things that decides a game of football. Of course, first half, we had lots of the ball, we controlled it but we couldn't create anything. Second half, I thought we tweaked a couple of things tactically, just small little things that made the space bigger, a couple of runs that we make which creares the space for Bruno in the middle, the quality of the finish. Of course, all the goals were exceptional quality and that was the difference between us and them today because they had chances in the first half. They couldn't score but the quality we had in the second half too high." Q: It's quite perplexive to see your side, poor in the first hald but superb in a 20-minute passage of play in the second half. Does it perplex you at times? A: "You know, we're playing against a very good side. They've drawn to Tottenham, they've drawn to City, they should've got points against Liverpool, they beat Wolverhampton, they beat Leicester, they're a very good team. They made it difficult for us because they've got x-factor and quality in the big moments of the game. Set plays, definitely. Counter-attacks. You know, we had the ball, I'm sure we had 60-65 per cent possession in the first half but, as I said, we couldn't control their big moments. When we got the goal and got on the front foot, we look like ourselves. We've done this too many times now, coming back from 1-0 down for it to be a coincidence. We have character in the team, and belief. The mentality is one of the biggest things I take from these away games. They always believe in themselves, we trust ourselves. There's no shouting and screaming and all that, we believe in our team and in ourselves." Q: For the equaliser, David Moyes wasn't happy and convinced the ball went out of play. What ddi you make of it? A: "I don't know. The ball went more or less over my head so I can't really say. The linesman's in the best position to call it. But Dean said it was clearly inside so, but he was obviously biased then. But a very good goal by Paul so if it was out, we were lucky but the referee didn't make the call. Q: VAR cannot check that, do you think we should have a camera on the touch-line? A: "You know, there's so many things we could check on VAR, if it's this, that or the other. Fred got sent off against PSG for something that was clearly not a foul. You can discuss absolutely everything. I think we should leave the game with the stance that sometimes there's human error. If this was a human error, I'm not sure. But that's what's fantastic about football, that we can discuss things as well. Q: Why did you leave Bruno on the bench and what kind of impact did he make when he came on? A: "I think this season is going to be such a long and hard one that wen players got niggle injuries... He's been kicked so many times in the last few weeks so I didn't want to use him from the start. We got a big game on Tuesday, we got a good squad with lots of quality and talent out there so we decided to go for the starting eleven that we did." Q; Ole, what will be on your mind as manager, the fact that you're able to come back so well in the way that you described or the fact that you have got yourselves into the position of being behind so many times away from home in the first place? A: "What do you think a manager would do? Exactly. You have to look at what you can do better and, of course, first half, we weren't really at the races. We had lots of possession but we couldn't control the game and we couldn't create anything because we didn't have enough run in-behind, create enough spaces, made the right movements, but we did that in the second half. We tweaked a few things tactically and it worked. Q: I would like to ask about the, unfortunate, small noise that happened when players took the knee before kick-off. Did you hear anything and do you have any thoughts on that? A: "I don't know what you talk about. I've not read the news, I've been very focused on the game today so I've not seen anything today. Q: What about Fred? Was he injured? A: "No, Fred's not injured. He's getting ready for the rest of the season. We have a long season and today it was a tactical decision to go with a more physical, strong or... more height is more right than physically strong. We neede height and Paul and Scott and Nemanja where the three midfielder I brought down in the squad."