On Brentford’s opening goal coming from a long throw-in…
It’s the only thing we did yesterday on the training pitch, preparing for that, and the meeting today. That’s not the only thing we prepared them for, because Brentford are also known for very good set-pieces but they are also, in my opinion, known for a fantastic counter-attack and that was their second goal. I think at this moment of time, and that’s why it should never be seen as an excuse, but if I say it was a soft penalty I hope you guys are not going to tell me that is a bad excuse, but it was a very soft penalty to concede.
On tactical adjustments he made to the team at half-time…
Florian [Wirtz] played in the first half also a lot on the inside, but Mo played a little bit more central as well, like we did this week against [Eintracht] Frankfurt. If you are 2-1 down, I was expecting in the second half them maybe in moments to be a bit lower and then it’s always good to have Mo on the side, where he can get his crosses in, his one-v-ones. But it wasn’t as if the second half was completely ours, that was definitely not the situation, they were in the game a lot. Although we scored the 3-2 and had a few moments to score the 3-2, they definitely had their moments to also score the 4-1.
On whether it’s one of the most disappointed he’s been with a performance in his time at the club…
Yes, I think it’s up there in my time here in terms of losing a game of football because normally when we are 2-1, 3-1 or 1-0 down… by the way, after we went 1-0 down, that was the only 20 or 25 minutes I really liked from our game today. Unfortunately, we had a great moment with Florian that didn’t lead to a goal because you need to then have a little bit of luck and those moments can bring you back into the game and can give us the energy. But, after 30 minutes, I think they took the game again with long throw-ins, set-pieces and other moments where they were just really good. Again, please don’t focus on what I’ve just said because they did many things well.
Then, I think it is a crucial moment when just before they scored the 2-0, there was a moment where Cody dribbled inside the box and they didn’t play the ball. I think if you would show both situations – the penalty we conceded and that moment – to every referee in the world, they would tell you maybe both were nothing but if I had to give one of the two then I definitely would give the one to Cody. The bad luck for us was that I don’t think the referee was intending to give a penalty for that but he thought he’d give them a free-kick, then the VAR said it was inside so then if you think it’s a free-kick then it’s a penalty. That bad luck maybe comes if you play a game of football like we did today.