Presser'n:
13:31 Douglas injury?
He won’t be available for this coming game.
13:32 What does that mean?
It’s a difficulty not to have all of the players available. We have the solution of Dallas and before Douglas arrived he played an important role as a full-back.
We also have Tom Pearce in the same position. Without minimising the impact of Douglas we are always prepared for solutions.
13:33 Adkins's praise on Tuesday
I thank him for what he said. And especially when it comes from someone like him who knows the league so well, but this increases the obligation to prove the good words said about us.
13:36 Statement being top in the break
We lost some points during our journey and they were not linked to the absences. Especially in the games versus Sheffield and Birmingham. I wouldn’t argue we lost these points because we didn’t have enough players.
I always have a lot of consideration for those not available, but we have to be ready to resolve the absences we can have. The performances of Jansson, Roberts and Harrison are satisfactory.
For the next game I hope we can keep improving.
13:38
Beren Cross
Severity of Douglas injury
He will be available to play after the international break, but I couldn’t assure you that.
13:37 Smaller squad he wanted - justified with injuries?
I would say the opposite because we now have more absences than what we thought. I always think as an average four players would be missing for each game, now we are above this average, but I have a lot of consideration for the work done by the academy.
It allowed us to count on players like Shackleton, Clarke, Edmondson, Shaughnessy. They are covering the absences of our more experienced players.
13:41 Long penalty wait - 49 matches
I like the hard way the referees work in England. The tempo of the games is linked to the fact English football is noble(?). I say English football and not English players because we have many foreign players here.
Obviously the fans don’t celebrate speculation and people trying to cheat. That’s why the players read this message and doesn’t simulate. It’s a lot easier for the referee not to evaluate any simulation.
He has the conditions that allows him not to doubt when he sees an action. I always think if the referee takes the right or wrong decision, they always need to be supported by the actors in football because their job is very difficult.
They deserve respect when they take the right decision and deserve consideration when they make a mistake. Those of us who take an opinion on the referee have more resources than they have when they take the decision.
13:45
Beren Cross
Good game?
There is something very constant and a high percentage and then you can figure you out when you’re watching the game as a spectator. When you say good things about a player the next action, the next player makes a mistake. I don’t know if this is frequent here. In Argentina it’s very common, it happens all the time and those who do the same job as you, whenever this happens they refer to the conclusion I just made. That’s why I wouldn’t like to make any comment. I imagine it will be an attractive game, but I don’t want to risk it with my opinion.
13:44 Brentford style
It’s a team that needs the ball. You have many teams who feel comfortable without the ball than with the ball and this is not a criticism. Brentford wants the ball, they know what to do when they have the ball. They want to play, they don’t want to lose time.
When we don’t play it’s not a good thing for the side because the best thing Brentford does is to play football. If I said they have a style similar to ours after having described the opponent’s style as I just said it would be pretentious for us.
I describe their style, but I don’t take the virtues I mentioned about Brentford’s football for us.
13:48 We call it the commentator's curse
Games are related and explained by two different type of person, like here. One tells and the other interprets. When we say good things about a player the following action he does something wrong.
That’s why sometimes you have to ironically say a good thing just for something bad to happen...
That’s a message that football sends us. When you anticipate something it doesn’t mean you know what’s going to happen because we all think we know what’s going to happen.
The football warns us it’s the most popular sport because it’s unpredictable.
13:52 How do United compare to opponents so far
We have teams like Middlesbrough, they are very strong in the aerial game, in the 50-50 balls, they are strong and you are sometimes afraid of them.
You have teams like Derby County, just to give an example, they have other features linked to an offensive process that is different. There’s a style I like a lot, Preston’s style, and they are in the lower part of the table.
When the result becomes the only argument the opinion does not matter anymore. When you evaluate what a team produces as an exclusive argument we would not need any press conference because we wouldn’t have any subject to talk about.
We have a situation where we talk about football, but we still consider the result most important.
Because we always have to adapt to the important laws that rule. It’s not efficient if you do the opposite. It’s hard for me to defend things...
Preston and Brentford, they have a similar style, with young players with an attractive football, but they had different results with a similar style.
I don’t think we should take my opinion into account. but to be sure of what you’re saying we need to see a lot more.
13:59 Has Bielsa ever had a cabbage thrown at him?
I don’t see this is as barbaric as you see it. This means I have bad habits and you have good habits.
14:03 On Adkins's comments
The destinatory of these words should not be me, it should be the players, but I accept the good words and I am thankful for the good words of Adkins.
When you reject good words you can think people are falsely modest. I hate false modesty because you want people to think the opposite of what you are saying.
For example, you could say with the same players, the head coach is having better results and this is not true because the last season, at the same time, after 11 games Leeds had a better ranking. What confirms my opinion is we always have to be thankful to people who say nice things, especially when it’s a colleague who has a specialised view on...
Even more when it’s an experienced head coach like the one of Hull or Middlesbrough. Having said that, I only wish we will deserve the same good words at the end of this championship because we have many things to prove, to demonstrate that has not happened so far.
14:04 Been here four months - enjoyed the culture?
This is a countryside region. Am I right? <Yes, in parts>
I’m a countryside man more than a city man. And I like fish and chips, but I like even more the Argentina meat.
14:07 Bed in the office? How many hours a week studying football in his office?
Apart from football I don’t know how to do many things. My life is summed up by football and family. Football has taught me, but to understand it better, it is better to watch a good movie or read a good book.
It’s better to read a good book or watch a movie than insist on the topic of football because when you insist you make many efforts, but don’t take a step forward. The kids do that with their hair, but when you observe and watch football in an exaggerated way, you don’t improve. The obsession is described as a virtue.
We identify obsession with work. When I look obsessively at my work I know I am close to a failure.