Pressekonferansen - ikke alt er like lett å skjønne...
Good morning...
Morning folks and welcome to our coverage of Marcelo Bielsa’s pre-Aston Villa press conference.
The Whites head coach is due up at 12.30pm to run the rule over Sunday’s clash, so get settled and we’ll crack on....
Adam Forshaw also due up
Once we’ve heard from Bielsa, Adam Forshaw is also set to face the press.
He's here...
Here’s Marcelo Bielsa. alongside his trusted translator Salim Lamrani.
Let’s see what he has to say...
Disappointment on Monday - how have you managed that this week? Hard to pick everyone up?
You can feel only one way and we feel this way.
Tough to get players back up? They were flat after the game
What happened was unavoidabl.e. THe way the palyer feels is normal, if they didn’t feel that way, we would worry about it.
Still thinking about top 2 or is the play-offs the focus now?
Whatever the reality says.
What expecting from Villa? Win give important mental edge?
Of course we need to play a game to rebuild our optimism and winning Sunday would be positive in that aspect.
Any new injuries?
Apart from Roofe and Alioski, all the other players are available.
What's wrong with Roofe?
He has a problem with his hip and can’t use his maximum speed.
How long out for?
It think he will be available sooner [than the end of the season].
Bad luck with injuries?
As an average we miss four players for each game this season
How are you feeling yourself, Marcelo?
I already said how I feel in the last press conference.
And I don’t think it’s necessary to repeat.
How do you lift yourself? Take yourself away from it or anything?
I think when you receive a blow, to ignore the consequences is not the right path.
Pain has a natural process for disappearing and if you want to force or hide this process, it is meaningless.
Supporters want your work to continue here regardless of how the season ends - what would you say to that?
It’s not up to me and I don’t have any more response to that.
It’s not a decision that we have to take now and it’s not the right time to give my opinion.
How confident you can recover your best football?
We don’t need to recover this football because we haven’t lost our football. When you lose, you lose. It’s obvious. But we can’t ignore the way these losses happen.
When you lose you don’t always have the same message. When you lose at a specific moment it’s not always the same message that comes out.
I am going to give you some figures that are not taken into account, but for me have a lot of value.
Our team this season has had 300 chances to score. And we had 100 chances more to score than the first and second teams in the table.
And we have 14 players who played this whole season. To give you an example, Douglas, Alioski and Davis, our three left-backs of the team, all of them have three knee injuries.
So when you take into account this reality, you must have to take into account what the players have done at the right level.
If only 14 players have played the whole Championship. If we need six chances to score one goal and our rivals need only three., the only feeling I have towards our players is respect and consideration.
The game that decided our fate was the game that we lost at home to Wigan.
In that game we have 15 chances to score and we have more than 70% of possession. The final result was a decision of God. I know that what I am saying, people will deduce it with irony, sarcastically. No one wants to miss a chance to score and you don’t evaluate teams by the goals they score, but by the chances they create. But of course teams that are efficient make a difference. We were not efficient.
But then when you play a competition with a small number of players and also the injuries we have had that are muscular are to do with luck, so we were not helped by destiny in that sense. I am very happy with all that I received from the club and the sporting director but there are things we obviously couldn’t get and I always describe myself as responsible of the situation. I know what I’ve done to find solutions and I didn’t find solutions. So this is the story. But what we can’t say about our team is that they couldn’t assimilate the pressure.
Because you don’t assimilate the pressure only when you don’t use the skills you have.
Remember what I say now, as you will be able to verify it.
You won’t have one single player in our team that would be able to reproduce the same level of performance in another season, because we have been very demanding with them and they give everything and they have the figures that I am checking all the time that show what I am telling is true. The players won’t be able to reproduce the levels they have shown in another season.
We can say that you can’t support the pressure and undergo the pressure only if you know you say that and you know what the pressure is. If you say in the last X games you lost 5/10 games because you couldn’t handle the pressure it’s not only about the team who wins can stand the pressure. It’s about how you win and lose the game.
You mentioned things you couldn't get - transfers?
I don’t have any criticism to anyone. Everything that could be done was done. You know that James was going to come and didn’t come in January. I’m not underlying the importance of the absence of James, I’m underlying that the club struggled to get James. The club did everything, more even, that they could do to find solutions to the needs of the team.
But with James or without him we should have finished first or second without any doubt.
The game against Wigan illustrated the trend that the team has had all season. We had many games we deserved to win and didn’t win.
But the game of Wigan was an example of this. Obviously it was not our destiny to finish 1st or 2nd and we couldn’t explain it. Or maybe we could have an explanation. We need to have twice as many chances to score as our opponents. But you can’t say a team that has 15 chances to score and 75% possession that they didn’t deserve to win.
If I was a fan listening to this, I would say that this is not enough of an explanation. It’s not enough to heal the dissolution. Our state of mind is not linked to a personal matter, the personal pride of reaching something. But it’s just because we were not able to give a response to the hope of the fans.
Those who are in the world of football give us possibility that the vast majority of people don’t have no matter what they do.
It’s the possibility of producing happiness and hope. and when you produce sadness and disillusion you can’t prevent that the arguments you are giving will erase these feelings. For some losses and some feelings you don’t have any arguments and football is a proportionate element. And someone who listens to this press conference will say this man is talking about a big loss like he is talking about a big loss that you couldn’t heal. The fact we’ve not finished first or second is not something you can’t change and we feel that. And the fans more than us.
So you can’t hide the fact that people suffer because of this. When I say what I’m saying I always think how people will evaluate what I’m saying.
And people feel indignation because I feel like that. They have more important issues than this. Football is like that. I make comments on football and I also look at what life is, that’s why what I say is strange.
What are your options at left-back?
Dallas.
How well are Aston Villa playing at the moment?
It’s a team with an offensive skills that are different to other teams. Many offensive players, many wingers, offensive spirit and many are playing at a high level.
Have you known a season as drastic as this in terms of ill fortune?
I would say that my results link me more to defeat than to success. In my personal career.
That's all from Bielsa
Some weighty answers in there.
That’s all from Bielsa, Adam Forshaw will be up next.