Lijnders on Trent injury and Robbno return ahead of Liverpool - Fulham cup semi final
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00:00 Good.
00:02 How are you?
00:04 Good.
00:06 OK.
00:07 How are you, Bill?
00:09 The usual, I'm going to be in the changing room,
00:12 we'll have a quick recap next door for the dailies.
00:15 Pep, glad you're all good.
00:20 Bad news, though, obviously the injury to Trent,
00:23 just tell us a bit about that, what's going on?
00:25 So he hyperextended his knee in the game,
00:28 so there's a little tear in the collateral ligament.
00:35 He will be out probably three weeks.
00:39 Big blow, he was one of our most important players.
00:45 He created a lot of dynamics, was always decisive.
00:48 Even in bad spells he was the one who put the balls where it was...
00:57 ..where we would make the difference.
01:00 We will have to find new dynamics without him, because he made our game flexible.
01:04 So big blow, hopefully three weeks, and with the winter break in between.
01:08 Winter break, a few days.
01:10 It seems to be where injuries are hitting this season, isn't it?
01:15 Looking at it, it seems as well there's been an atmosphere around the club
01:20 that you've been quite relaxed during the transfer window,
01:23 and during that back line, we saw obviously Conor Bradley have an impact.
01:28 You mentioned Bobby Clark having an impact coming in midfield,
01:31 you probably liked the way Deema took the yellow cards,
01:34 and he did too, and that's why he didn't take it on the break.
01:36 But how much is the relaxed attitude around transfers
01:39 down to the emergence of players like Conor, like Alonso?
01:43 Two things, we spent a lot of money in the summer,
01:48 we really invested in the squad, the ownership really brought in the right players.
01:54 So this means that even when you have injuries at the moment,
02:02 they will be back in not that long, hopefully.
02:06 I think the difference between a good season and a top season
02:09 is when you are going through these phases,
02:12 how the squad reacts when players are missing,
02:16 so Mo going, how Dojota, Cody, Darwin, Lucio, how they step up, Harvey.
02:23 And then we always believe in the academy as well.
02:28 I think one thing is that you want to produce your own players,
02:35 to be able to fight, to compete and to win prizes.
02:38 The other reason why we have an academy and 250 players there,
02:42 and we are training and dreaming and hoping is that in these moments where it's harder,
02:47 when a season gets tough in terms of injuries, that they can back you.
02:51 And so far they always did.
02:54 Look to Conor Bradley, he comes in, Martinelli comes in,
02:57 fresh to go one-on-one constantly.
03:00 Maybe the first one not, but the big diagonal he couldn't clear,
03:04 but after that he reads, he learns and he can clear two or three.
03:08 One-on-one against Martinelli, the first one he gets outplayed,
03:11 he learns and he closes the outside better.
03:14 So these boys learn at the same moment,
03:17 and I think Conor and Bobby are not backup players,
03:22 they are part of our squad.
03:25 They are young, hungry, and they are made for games like this.
03:30 Look what happened with Jorel, sorry to continue talking,
03:33 but look what happened to Jorel.
03:35 We put him in Newcastle, one of the worlds with 10 men,
03:40 after that he feels our trust, he knows we can really rely on him,
03:46 and he makes the steps he makes.
03:48 Young players just need opportunity, they don't need criticism,
03:52 they just need trust from the coaching staff.
03:55 That's what we try to do.
03:57 So these two boys are really good, but we have more of them.
04:01 Do you have Virgil available again, Shabazz Lai, Wensley back,
04:05 and Thiago?
04:07 Yeah, Virgil ran yesterday while we were doing the training with the subs,
04:14 so he did a few jogs, he looked good.
04:18 He was smiling, speaking, he did together with Jot, so that looked good.
04:22 Now he will be back, that's the second thing as well,
04:27 these phases where you get sickness as well,
04:30 you get players who get ill or staff who get ill.
04:35 He looks good, good to go. Dom is progressing well on the pitch, running,
04:39 so he's not far away. Robbo is on the third-month mark,
04:45 so he has another scan, if that goes well,
04:48 then we can really decide when to have more contact,
04:52 which is the tricky thing with this injury.
04:55 Costas is going quicker as expected,
04:59 so they, both Robbo and Costas, will be back probably at the end of this month,
05:04 training with the team, so there's still time.
05:08 And Stefan and Thiago will be in until next month,
05:11 but no complications, so that's good.
05:14 Just on the game itself, obviously it's nice to be in the semi-final,
05:17 but how much of a mindset is that nothing has been achieved just yet
05:21 and it's about making the most of the position you're in
05:24 to, I suppose, lay down a marker for the rest of the season?
05:27 You mean this next game or last game?
05:29 This next game, obviously in the semi-final you've got a chance to get to a final,
05:33 and if you were to go on and win that cup final,
05:36 obviously it lays down a marker.
05:38 No, we all dream, no?
05:40 When we are young you want to play in the most iconic stadiums in the world
05:44 and Wembley is one of them.
05:46 It has so much history and so many memories we already made there,
05:51 so you want to go there.
05:53 I think the team has this hunger, it's the closest final we can reach,
05:58 but we have to respect Fulham.
06:01 They have a very clear way, a good offensive idea, really creative,
06:08 especially they can build with three,
06:11 the outside triangles are really flexible so they can interchange positions.
06:15 They have Jimenez, who is back to his old quality, how he was at Wolves,
06:20 real focal point for them.
06:27 If you let them play, we analyse and then you see how much problems
06:31 they can create against the team.
06:33 You saw what they did with West Ham, you saw what they did with Forest,
06:36 and just now they won Arsenal.
06:39 So if you let them play, they really play, they do the simple things really, really good.
06:46 Really clear style, Marco does an incredible job in my opinion.
06:50 Then you have Andreas Pereira, he was my player when he was nine years old at PSV Eindhoven.
06:55 Unbelievable that you can play against him now.
06:58 So much creativity, he can play early passes to Jimenez.
07:02 Harry, of course, we know really well.
07:07 He was a goal threat, he can shoot from everywhere.
07:11 Great personality, we really like him.
07:14 And then William, nothing to say, one of the better players.
07:18 We really need to be spot-on, like in the last game,
07:21 our high prayers, our midfield prayers, we need to defend them with all we have
07:26 and then put our aggressive attacking style into place.
07:30 We saw how dangerous Fulham can be recently,
07:35 they scored three goals at Anfield, is that a game you'd look back on?
07:39 Is it something that might give them a bit of encouragement coming into the game?
07:42 Yeah, they will be the same as us, they can reach Wembley,
07:46 so they will be on top of it.
07:49 Like I said, I think they deserve more merit, in my opinion,
07:53 with the squad Marco has and what he's doing.
07:55 I always hope the players are available,
07:58 now of course a few are going away as well to the AFCON.
08:01 Nadia, I like the offensive idea, so that's what I said.
08:06 And they can create from deep, what they did against us,
08:10 when they were longer, directer, they are good with the second ball
08:14 and then tricky with the passes to the front players.
08:17 And when they can start crossing from deep,
08:20 like Fulham early crosses to the second post with the strike
08:24 or the opposite Fulham who arrives there,
08:26 then they become really, really dangerous.
08:29 We need to be spot-on in all departments, that's for sure.
08:34 It's over two legs, obviously, there's no away goal rule or anything like that,
08:39 so do you see the tie as two games as a whole
08:42 or do you have to look at each one in isolation?
08:45 At the moment we are after the crazy December schedule,
08:48 and two days ago we go to Arsenal, you just look at the next game.
08:52 You're not even thinking about the game after.
08:55 And that's also something we really like,
09:00 we see just the next game as the next final.
09:03 It sounds cliché, but it is like this, and that's how we prepare.
09:07 We see which players are really available,
09:10 we look at how they are,
09:13 and then we make a line-up and then we go.
09:17 Just to come back on Trent,
09:22 his skill set has been so integral to how this side has evolved,
09:26 so how do you replace the irreplaceable?
09:30 No, we have many weapons, so there's no irreplaceable,
09:34 that's also more goes away, shorter steps up.
09:40 If the best players are not there and you play really well,
09:44 the second half against Arsenal, then that's a good sign.
09:48 That's a really good sign.
09:50 That's what we've always done, we don't rely on one or two or three or four players,
09:56 we're missing probably four or five core players from our leadership group -
10:01 Robbo, Trent, Mo.
10:05 And then we're missing three from the leadership, so that's a blow, of course.
10:10 And he creates a lot of flexibility from the back,
10:13 he can play passes, which the forwards really like to receive.
10:20 He has verticality, he knows how to decide games,
10:25 he always sniffs when to put balls where.
10:31 The squad has a lot of other qualities, in my opinion,
10:35 but for sure we need to find new dynamics.
10:38 We always do that, it's a difference if Wata plays, for example,
10:41 or Alexis plays on the six, you find different dynamics.
10:44 We always search to become better, to evolve the game,
10:47 or to become a more complete team.
10:50 You see what players you have and you try to build around that.
10:53 It's different if Darwin plays strike or he plays on the left wing,
10:56 if Jota plays strike, it's complete.
10:59 We always search in this way, and now we have to find solutions without Trent as well.
11:04 But again, this squad has so much talent, so much power.
11:10 And the biggest...
11:13 We always say, as long as counter-pressing is there, everything else is replaceable.
11:18 Wow, quick one. Thank you, guys.
11:26 Thank you.
11:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]