by SCOTTISH LEEDS » 17 Sep 2018, 12:27
Team news
Injury wise, Berardi and Shackleton are getting close. Roofe and Hernandez need more time. Bamford obviously longer. But none of them will be involved tomorrow
On O'Kane breaking his leg
I was not aware of that. I am very sad about it and sad for him. I am ashamed to find this out. I should have got this afternoon faster and that's all I have to say.
Phillips at centre back
I don't think that at the beginning we did it to have three centre backs. When we play with a line of three we don't have to ask Phillips to play in a lower position, we have other possibilities. We have different tactical possibilities that adjust to the game.
On Neil Harris saying Leeds celebrations were a disgrace to English football..
"Everything that happened at the end of the game is clear enough so there is no necessity to explain it....
"If the river has too much water in it, you have to consider the reasons why."
Bielsa answered this in great detail but basically saying you have to consider why Leeds celebrated as they did. Said Leeds were being accused of behaving "as a savage."
Also said that behaviour doesn't relate to whether you are foreign or not
On what makes a good captain?
A captain has to be a good person, the values that our captain transmits are summed up in the fact that Cooper is more interested than the collective well being of the team than his own well being. Our captain is generous to help his team mate and he also has humility. If you combine generosity and humility it makes him an example for all of us and we always have to take into account examples of people who are better than us, this is not linked in to the fact that if he plays well or not. He will still be a great captain even when doesn't play.
On Izzy Brown
It's a very different case, it has been a long time since he played, he still has to recover, he hasn't started to play with the ball, he hasn't played football with us so far. It's impossible to say when he will be fit. It won't be a short time.
Will senior u-23s players feature tomorrow
Yes. I explain again, it's not good that a player plays 45 minutes before another game, even worse than this is when you need a player to go and play a game and he doesn't have the tempo and fitness to play a professional game. It's better to have more activity and having the player closer to his best performance than have a player rested but far away from his best level. The decision I am taking without explaining this would be imprudent.
On Preston
Preston is a special team because Preston's players have the skills to move the ball. They have a position in the table that they do not deserve. I always have the feeling of confidence, it doesn't matter who we are playing against, I always think we can win, it's part of the DNA of our profession.
Do you sense promotion is possible?
I see that we are getting stronger in each game. It's not convenient to talk about the final position when we have just played seven games, it's too early to draw conclusions after just seven games. Any conclusion that you take right now would not be a solid one because football is a game where you have many surprises. If you take into account the last game, the seventh game for all the teams and if you look at all the results, if we compare your questions to the reality of each team, it's very hard to make conclusions and draw conclusions taking into account all the things happening. We all think that when we make early conclusions, means that we have a lot of knowledge, and football is the first game in the world regarding it's unpredictable aspect, you can't anticipate the results in football. The day when you can predict the results in football, football won't be that attractive and technology is trying ti make many efforts in that sense and I don't think we should go in this way because football is famous because of it's unpredictable aspect.
On being top
From my point of view, I can't talk the name of everyone, it's not a pressure and it's not something I take as positive. In each game we have the obligation to win as in professional football. When you have a good performance people expect things from you, I don't think the position in the table generates pressure or makes things easier for us, we will always have ambition to win.
Showing qualities of a promotion winning team?
We need a longer period to evaluate if our team has the skills to get promotion.
There is a difference between the first games we played and the last three games. The injuries and the absences of some players are part of the difficulties you face in this competition, all teams face them and we are facing this kind of problem right now. But this difficulty was visible because all teams will have ti play games without the presence of important players so the difficulties we are facing, the other teams have the same ones, maybe in a different period, before us or after us, but they will face them.
How important to get back to winning ways?
It's not a good habit to stop winning, apart from the meaning and the features of the draws, our aspiration is to win again. No matter of the results before, to win is a necessity.