Ralph Hasenhüttl has shared his thoughts with the media ahead of Saturday's Premier League encounter with Chelsea. Read back the best bits from the manager in our summary below.
On Team News...
"I haven’t seen everybody yet, they will arrive this morning. A few of the last players will come tomorrow. So it’s definitely not the best way to prepare for a Premier League game at the weekend with the Wednesday game makes everything much more difficult so I can not say anything about those who I haven’ seen.
"He (Stuart Armstrong) won’t be an option for the weekend because he couldn’t train with us. He was in quarantine and we speak of a Premier League game where you normally want to work for a week to be part of it. No one else has tested positive here. We hope he will be back for the beginning of next week to be ready for the following game."
On International break...
"I don’t understand the three games to be honest. Suddenly we have a busy time now and we play three games, one friendly and two internationals, I know everybody wants to have their competition but arriving back on a Thursday or Friday is a disaster for us preparing for the weekend.
"For the players I would like them to play because I know it means a lot to them to be capped by their country. On the other side for us it’s not so bad when we have a fresh Danny Ings or Prowsey (James Ward-Prowse). Finally they deserve to be with this team."
On Project Big Picture...
"I was smiling a little bit because it’s interesting as in Germany they are discussing expanding the league to 20 clubs but here it is the opposite. They are trying to make the smaller teams stronger and competitive in comparison to Bayern Munich for example.
"It's interesting to see the discussion in every country and there are two opinions. I think the reason why the Premier League is so famous is because it is the most competitive in the world. Aston Villa beating Liverpool 7-2 is what makes the league so interesting. This is a sport no one wants to miss.
"That means you have all sorts of smaller clubs who can be competitive against the big ones. This makes the league special. I’m a big fan of supporting the smaller clubs and that’s why I’m happy with the decision."
On back to back clean sheets...
"It's always important for a team that is compact that they don’t concede any goals. After the five goals against Tottenham when we played a bad second half we had to change a few things and it worked.
"The last two games, firstly the win against Burnley was the first time, since I arrived, that we have beaten them. It gave us a lot of confidence. It was then a very good performance against West Brom but there’s no time to lean back. We want to show how far we are in our development."
ralph hasenhuttl
we've had two games at stamford bridge since i arrived...the level was high and we have to reach that to get something.
manager
On Chelsea...
"If they weren’t a better team now they would have spent money for nothing. They definitely have to be a better team than last season and they are. They have Timo Werner and Kai Havertz and a few other signings so have lots of quality. It’s a team to win titles and for us it will be more difficult to take something.
"We had two different games against them last season where we lost the first one and the second we played fantastic. We have had two games at Stamford Bridge since I arrived and both have been very good from our side. The level was high and we have to reach those levels as it will be difficult to get something."
On the Transfer Window...
"I must say I am happy that we have these two latest players now (Ibrahima Diallo and Theo Walcott) joining us and both have definitely the quality to make us better.
"With Theo we know about his history at the club, he had no game time at Everton so there was a chance to get him here. If you have the chance to get a player in who is still hungry and wants to learn and has quality that will makes us better. The question is not do we do it but when.
"With Diallo, yesterday was the first day he has been here as he was away with France Under 21. He is a big guy, solid and settled. He is clear in his mind, is smart and wants to learn. He wants to make the next step and we are the club to help that. He is the exact player we need for the number 6 position."
On the opening four games..
"We are getting closer to the chance to get to work with the team. At the beginning we couldn’t and in the last two weeks we couldn’t. We are a team that needs a good match plan and game management which requires us to train together.
"If we don’t have time to do this then we aren’t as competitive and that’s the reason why the last two games we have been more compact, got two clean sheets, been better with the ball and got two better results. This isn’t a coincidence. We know we have to work like this.
On hopes of next four games...
"Let us look at the next game first, we want to win every game and I don’t have a target for what we should be on after eight games.
"For us we need to take points consistently to keep momentum, to get a good feeling and have self confidence and on a good day we can beat anybody in the league and we have shown that in the past and want to show it in the future."
Share this: