Is there any injury update on Son or anyone else?
Nothing really. The last update I got was late last night and he was a bit sore after the game obviously but the extent of it we’ll need to see how he recovers today. There were a couple of others with knocks but I don’t think anything else insignificant.
It’s a tough time but this is a long-term project?
I’ve been consistent in saying that when things are going well. But I don’t think it was a brilliant start. A brilliants tart last night would’ve been taking advantage of the dominance we have in games. But we’re not. It’s keeping oppositions in the game and especially in the second half we had a couple of defensive lapses and a team like West Ham will always punish us.
For the football to be brilliant, it’s got to be there in its entirety and I dunno how many times I’ve said I still think in our front third we’ve got a lot of work to do. Unfortunately that’s costing us at the moment in terms of results. That’s the challenge for us, we’ve got to keep pushing on and try to become better in those areas.
Has the club rejected an approach from Swansea for Chris Davies and does that mean he’s staying?
No, but I’ve had a brief discussion with Chris and he knows we’ve got a busy week so we’ll focus on that. He’s an outstanding individual, he’s done some great work with us and great work in the past. It’s not surprising to me that Swansea or other clubs would look at him. It’s what you want to be honest.
You want good people and when you’ve got good people they’re going to attract attention. From my perspective, whatever that transpires to, it’s very much in Chris’ hands. It’s his decision in terms of what he wants to do moving forward and obviously the club will deal with it from there.
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After 15 games where are you and the team at?
I guess where I’ve said all along we’re at the beginning of trying to build something and a lot of it is… I think there’s been progress made for sure in many areas. There are areas we still need to do a lot of work in. We’ve obviously had challenges, injuries have disrupted our ability to have a consistent line-up, players who started the season well and were very influential. So with all that context – but that happens to every football club – we’ve just got to work our way through this difficult period. We’re still at the beginnings of what we’re trying to build.
What did you make of Cristian Romero’s return last night?
I thought Cristian was good last night, he obviously tired a bit towards the end. He gave everything and it was good to get him back in the line-up. He gives us a certain security back there and he also is a strong leadership figure out there which we’re going to need through this period because we’ve obviously still got some tough times ahead and guys like him will help steer us through that.
Why do you think Newcastle are performing differently away from home at the moment?
I think it’s fair to say Newcastle are probably the only other club who have gone through anything like we have from an injury perspective. That’s going to affect every club. I think they’ve battled through it reasonable well, very well in fact considering the number of disruptions they’ve had to their first team squad and the challenges they’ve had.
I think that any club in the Premier League that has gone through that kind of period will find it hard to get a consistency in results. It will be a tough game on Sunday for us because again they’ve got a team that has goal threats and they work hard as a unit and we’ve got to match that.
You mentioned about getting more out of the attackers and more goals from Johnson and Kulusevski, how do you coach that, is it about movement, positioning or confidence, or all of the above?
Yeah it’s all of that. Brennan is 22, he’s still learning the game in many respects and it’s a big move for him. Kulusevski similar, he needs to develop that side of the game but it’s like anything else, you’ve just got to keep working at it.
It’s not just them, it’s us as a team. The opportunities just didn’t fall for them last night, it was other players in those areas. We lacked some real conviction as we have in previous games, I think from the start of the season I don’t think we’ve rewarded our dominance with goals, even in the games that we’ve won.
We haven’t really converted the opportunities or created the chances that our play should have so that’s still the area that we’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do.
As you’re lacking conviction and creativity, is that area in January you can look to bring someone in?
Well, it is not easy because when you talk about the finished product, you know what that is going to cost in the market and there aren’t that many there. So, it is about developing young players here and giving them information and more room for them to continue to grow and understand the different options they have in those areas. Some of it is experience of them being in those positions and us giving them new information to execute it better next time.
You often go into clubs with new coaches, does that make it easier to absorb a coaching departure?
I’ve always been relaxed. I have said in the past it is part of my role to develop staff and I am really proud of the fact a lot of the guys I’ve worked with, the reason they are not with me as assistants is because they are senior managers in their own right. If you are looking for things that will be disruptive, you can use that as a clutch or an excuse for anything. We lost Harry Kane the day before the season started so there is a disruption, we lost half the squad after one game so there is a disruption. There will always be this. You can’t work in a vacuum where everything is perfect and for me I have been relaxed in these kind of situations because I have always believed the environment will cover whatever challenges we have if we get it right.
