00:00What's your overall feeling after that game?
00:04It's another loss, so it's difficult.
00:06I said to the lads, I'm getting really fed up of this,
00:10and I know they're hurting as well.
00:12But I know then I'll watch the game back,
00:16maybe take some of the emotion out of it
00:18and feel some of the good things as well.
00:22The feeling in the second half, we need to try and harness that,
00:25because what I saw was a team that was full of running, endeavour, brave,
00:29took risks and showed a lot of quality as well
00:34against obviously a top team.
00:36We can take a lot from it, but we're not taking any points.
00:42Did you have to have some tough words at half-time after the first half?
00:45A little bit. We adjusted a couple of things.
00:48Liverpool can force you back, obviously we all know that here at Anfield anyway.
00:51I thought we started the game the first 10-15 minutes,
00:53not too bad, the plan was fine.
00:56But then Liverpool began to force us back,
00:58they changed one or two bits and got a lot of numbers high,
01:01so it was hard for us then to get out.
01:03Transition moments were difficult, we gave it away too many times
01:05and then we weren't aggressive enough when we wanted to be in areas
01:08that we wanted to try and press.
01:10We adjusted Matthias Mane's position,
01:12I thought he was brilliant throughout the whole game,
01:14but we adjusted his position inside, went with two strikers
01:16and wanted to be more aggressive in the second half.
01:18I thought that it did work for us.
01:20We found Mane a lot in between the lines, he was able to turn and drive,
01:23we were more aggressive with our pressing.
01:25So it was a good adjustment and it gave us a fresh impetus,
01:29we could be more aggressive on the outsides then with the wing backs jumping
01:32and then we said if we get the goal, if we get the next goal then it is game on.
01:36And it was.
01:37You gave Matthias Mane the first start and we saw you pushing him over towards the front of the end,
01:44could you give an assessment of how you felt he did?
01:46I thought he was excellent, he deserved that round of applause there.
01:49I thought his energy was brilliant, his running was brilliant,
01:53but he was brave, he took the ball, he was a real shining light
01:56in what was obviously a difficult period for the club at the moment.
01:58He took risks, he had shots, he dribbled, he turned and played forward.
02:03But not only that, he showed just real desire to run and fight as well.
02:07So everything that you'd want in a young footballer, he showed that today.
02:12Can you tell us about the gesture last night of coming down on the injuries
02:18and then what you thought of today?
02:21I thought it was a real poignant moment and really emotional for one or two of our staff
02:26and players as well that knew him really well.
02:29But I thought it was right and really good that we did that last night,
02:33paid our respects and it was a really nice but emotional moment.
02:39And obviously again with his family here today, it would have been really emotional,
02:45but for two clubs that he represented so well and gave so much to.
02:50Both clubs, Liverpool are obviously a very classy football club as well
02:55and they always respect their players and it was a real nice moment that today.
03:01Can I just pick up on that in terms of, was it a difficult game to play in terms of the atmosphere?
03:10The atmosphere was flat and you always felt like there was something more at stake?
03:16Possibly, but I also think the way maybe we were set up as well,
03:21it slowed Liverpool down a little bit.
03:23Because they had territory but not loads of goal-mouthed stuff going on,
03:28you think that when the second goal went in, it was kind of normal Anfield again, wasn't it?
03:32And then you could feel that and you were hoping we were not in this washing machine now
03:35that people could get in when the Anfield was really going.
03:38We managed to settle and reorganise again.
03:41So I'll maybe give our lads a little bit of credit for that,
03:44that we were able to just slow it down and Liverpool weren't able to maybe get some of the action going
03:49that they can do here.
03:51Could you feel it before the game?
03:56Yeah, you could before the game.
03:58Yeah, you could before the game.
04:00I think obviously there's that link between the two clubs because of Diogo
04:03and obviously his family being there as well.
04:05I think you could feel that, I certainly could.
04:07I don't know whether the players could,
04:09I'm not sure if that was something then that they would have been really aware of,
04:12so I can't really speak for them but I could feel it.
04:16Rob, just in terms of your decision to put Jürgen Strand-Larsen on the bench,
04:20has he been distracted a bit by talking about his future?
04:24Was it purely tactical?
04:25I don't think it was anything to do with, you know, Jürgen's a good footballer
04:30and with the situation that we're in at the moment there's going to be talk about some of our players,
04:34that's obvious.
04:35I don't think he's been affected by that at all.
04:39But we felt it was the right way to go about it to win this game today.
04:43We felt we needed a real out-born toller who can obviously be that real presence.
04:48And I thought he was, by the way.
04:50I thought he was.
04:51So we just felt that was the right way to go for this game.
04:53Jürgen's been working extremely hard, he's been a real good voice in the dressing room,
04:58he's been excellent in many ways but maybe taking him out might be the right thing for a game.
05:05So I thought his reaction was very good when he came on.
05:08And it's a squad game, you know, we have to make difficult decisions.
05:13I suppose in the seven games that I've been in, I've tried quite a lot now.
05:16You know, we've changed the number trying to, you know, we've seen a lot of the lads.
05:21So, yeah, look, he was fine, but it was just the decision we made for today.
05:28Let's move to a preview for Monday at one.
