Philippe Clement has spoken to the media after the draw with Hearts. Here is every word he had to say.
*Unhappy with the first half but positives after the break
*Cortes knee injury still to be assessed
*Propper and Cerny additions and being on the right track
What did you make of the performance today?
I was not satisfied with the first half, the first half hour for sure. We lacked intensity in the duels. There were a lot of long balls where we didn’t win the first duel, also not the second duel, also not the third duel. Because of that we came under pressure. With the ball, we were not calm enough, not brave enough to do the right things and be in the right positions like we want. So it was really important to have those 15 minutes during half-time to put things straight, show them where we were going wrong and change that. It changed a lot in the second half. We took control of the game and played better football. We had good chances also and we dominated the second half. I expect that to happen during the game, and that’s why we need experience on the pitch to guide things. Those are things to work on for the future.
How do you look at a point from the first game?
You always need to see whether it was the correct result or not. I think it was a fair result today. The first half was for Hearts, the second half was for us. We had good chances to finish off the game. I prefer to be decisive in the second half because then the other team cannot come back. We were really close with Cyriel’s header, against the crossbar and the post – that doesn’t happen that much. And we had good offensive actions, with new players coming into the team and recognising the spaces better. It’s a progression in that way, and we need to say that it was a fair point that we got. Of course I wanted to get the three points like all the players, but we need to look forward now and not be sticking in results all the time. Tuesday is again a massive game, an important game against a team who could rest this weekend to be fresh on Tuesday. We need to put all our focus on that.
How is Oscar Cortes?
I cannot say at the moment. He fell down in a duel in a bad way in the first half and hurt his knee. But he said – and he was also tested by the doctor – that he was fine for the second half. With his first sprint, he felt too much pain so we had to take him off. It’s not the ideal thing of course because you lose a changing [substitution] moment in the second half, in this period when players are less fresh at the end of the game. But it’s experience [for] a young player also. Knowing your body, what is pain, what you can do and what you cannot do. That’s part of the journey of young players to get a better assessment around that.
Did the second half give you enough confidence that you are going in the right direction?
Of course, you saw also with the other signing coming on he made a direct impact on the game but he comes out of four weeks of holiday after the Euros. He has trained just three times with us. He is not in top shape. For sure we are going to become better. Robin was also with the squad today but if you don’t train with the team you cannot play a game. So that is also some experienced waiting to be put in the squad. I am sure in the next couple of weeks we are going to improve and in that way it was positive that they reacted in the right way I the second half, doing the things that we needed to do and you saw that we played much better football again.
Will Propper and Cerny be able to start against Dynamo Kiev?
It is too early to ask this question now. I need to see how players come out of this game, how do they recover before Tuesday in such a short time. That is why Kyiv also do not play this weekend, for example. We need to see to make the right decisions for that game and then the game that comes after and the week after. It will be every three days looking at the form of the players physically but also mentally, but for sure physically. Are they ready to play every time? I don’t think we have many players now who can play nine games in four weeks but that’s a problem with all the teams that play early in Europe. It is the same everywhere. We need to make smart rotations.
Are you happy with where your team are?
You know me a little longer now, I am never happy. I always want more. I want better. I want to improve things. I would have loved to win today, we were really close but we could have lost this game also. I don’t think we could have done much more work in the last couple of weeks in training to be much better than we were today but we still have a way to go and we will improve in the next couple of weeks and the next couple of months in that way and we become stronger and stronger. Small things like Danilo, if you have a fit Danilo then you can put him on in the last 15 minutes to come in fresh but he is not there yet. So you cannot make those changes for the moment, so there are a lot of individual things we can make better, and also collectively as you saw in the second half with and without the ball it was not good enough but if we do the right things as we did in the second half we play much better.
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