Below are selected highlights from Monday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Lasse Sorensen’s thoughts.
… Adam Pope (BBC Radio Leeds): You said [after the game on Saturday] that you threw every attacking option that you had with you on the day to try and get over the line, but the attacking options didn’t include Alfie May. Obviously, you’ll be asked about a guy that’s a proven goalscorer. You had a conversation with him [on Friday, then] he doesn’t get involved…I mean, how does that conversation go, and how’s he reacted?
Alfie was first-class today, and he’s back in contention for tomorrow. I think it’s one of those: he’s had a very bitty start since we’ve been here, obviously, with the red card, wrongly so, then obviously being ill as well. So it’s been very bitty for him, and I had a good chat with him on Friday, about certain bits.
I thought was excellent in training today, and he comes into contention for tomorrow,
AP: In terms of how that’s perceived, you can understand why people might feel ‘but why isn’t he involved at all, even if it doesn’t start?’. Are you able to sort of cast any light on that?
Yeah, there’s certain bits, I think, that are better off kept in-house.
There’s no major issue on it. He’s trained OK, I think it’s one of those where there’s competition, we need people at their absolute maximum, and Alfie has shown that today…I thought he was excellent today in training.
There’s certain bits behind the scenes that, like I said, there’s no issues whatsoever, which I know people will jump to straight away. Have a terrific relationship with Alfie, and like I said, expect to see him soon.
AP: Is that one of the hardest things to manage: you know the reality, and you know what people are saying, but you’re the manager and you’ve got to make the decisions. Is that one of the hardest things — making decisions but not always being able to say maybe exactly what you want to say?
Look, my number one thing is to make sure that I manage the group and try to pick a team to win the game, and I think the biggest bit within that is we make sure that we hold the highest standards in the culture that we create and how we communicate, how we work, what we look like day to day.
So, of course, there’s certain bits that if you’re a family, that you do keep in-house, and there’s other bits that you can talk around, and there’s other bits that you’ll talk around that will get changed in terms of how people perceive it and read into things.
There’s genuinely nothing to read into, and like I said, Alfie is in contention for tomorrow.
… Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): There were individuals on Saturday, like Cameron Humphreys, who was much more forward looking, much more willing to take risks. Is it now just about, ‘right, we’ve got some players doing that, and we’ve had moments where we’ve done that, and it’s now just finding more consistency across the 11 players and across the 90 minutes to show that intent’?
Yeah, very much so, very much so.
That’s the message: in the right areas, be brave, take risks, ask questions. I spoke to him today about it, actually: the ball that Cam Humphreys played over the top for Ryan Hardie in the second half, there were a couple of moments where we could have done it against Rotherham.
Afterwards, we sat showing the video and said ‘look, be brave, take the risk there, play it’.
That’s what we do behind the scenes. That’s constant, whether it be Martin [Drury], Steady (Jon Stead), [James] Krause and Chris [Elliott]: all the coaches behind the scenes are grabbing players to show the opportunities where we could play forward and don’t; or to be brave enough, is it the psych aspect, is it mentally being brave enough to take the risk and [not worrying about it going wrong?
Sometimes it’s not easy, and it’s about when you feel the energy and the atmosphere on you, how do you stay level? How do you keep those strong behaviours and take the risk at the right time?
… SC: You always go over to the fans after a game to applaud them, and you didn’t get a particularly nice response on Saturday. Is that something you need to manage with the lads as a coach? Do you understand where it comes from? And does it just make you feel more like you’ve got a point to prove in the next game?
Of course, it’s not nice. We want a strong connection and I think first and foremost, we want the fans on board, and we want them to get behind us, which they have done many times here since I’ve been here.
If the lads leave it all out there, I’ll always defend them. I think if it comes down to quality, if it comes down to tactical things, things we can be better at. But we have to control what we can.
I think the biggest thing we can control is mentally, where we’re at; the preparation we do for tomorrow; and it comes back to the behaviours and the culture we just spoke about a minute ago, and making sure that we transfer the strong culture we’ve got off the pitch onto the pitch.
We need to show a real bravery tomorrow night, and go and show an aggression, a purpose and intent to play forward, like we did at the weekend. I think that’s the starting point to get the fans on board.
Naturally, I think the challenge for anybody is — same as the players — rather than kind of turn up and wait to see what happens from the start, take responsibility. That’s the message: turn up and get right behind it.
And that’ll be the message for the players: turn up, don’t wait to see what happens and then respond…go and grab the game the second the first whistle goes, and go and be the more dominant team on the pitch, and the more dominant team off the pitch in the stands.
