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.