Paul Heckingbottom on Fulham
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00:00Well, Marco Silva saying you've had some good battles over the years, have you gone up against him a few times?
00:05You said your team always play hard, try against.
00:07Yes, a lot of time for him, a good guy, he's done a great job and yes, I know how good a team he's going to bring up.
00:15And yes, the fact that we played each other a few times, yes, it makes it better.
00:21I enjoy that more, Marco will and we'll catch up afterwards.
00:24And yes, I know how well drilled they'll be, how much quality they'll have.
00:31And I also know that he'll be ready to make any changes needed to make it hard for us, depending on what we do.
00:38Yes, you spoke about athleticism in the Premier League last week.
00:41When did you start to notice that as a real thing in terms of the difference between there and the Championship?
00:47Yes, a few years ago when I first experienced it, obviously when I was caretaker manager in the Premier League,
00:52it was massively evident.
00:55Listen, you experience it as a player, you experience it when you manage against them in cup competitions,
01:02but one off always feels different.
01:05When that becomes the norm every week, yes, it's a big jump.
01:10And in all honesty, just in those two,
01:14that two-year gap and then getting back to the Premier League two or three years, whatever it was, I think it improved again.
01:18And then you look at the numbers, it looks like the number of sprints is going up year on year,
01:23the top speeds are going up year on year.
01:26So, they're the demands and that's the level of the game.
01:29So, yes, that's what you end.
01:31Our fans will see that tomorrow night.
01:34Some top athletes in there, whichever XI he puts out, there's some top athletes in there.
01:39And we've got to be able to handle that and then try and impose ourselves on the game.
01:43How far behind do you think the Championship is in that regard?
01:46What, the physicality?
01:47Yes, quite a long way if you look at the average.
01:50I mean, it's a different physicality in the Championship.
01:53The fact that it's 46 games, not 38.
01:57The fact that the way the game's refereed in terms of more contact,
02:01there probably are more tackles,
02:05a little bit less control of the teams in possession.
02:09So, it's a bit more frantic,
02:12which lends itself more to tackles, to duels.
02:16So, there's a different physicality to the Championship
02:18and a different mentality to the Championship.
02:20But, yes, the change in pace when you get to the Premier League,
02:24the moments from slow to fast, it's a blink of an eye.
02:28And, yes, they're the top athletes.
02:30Brilliant. Thanks, Bob.