Below are selected highlights from Tuesday morning’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.
Lee Grant
Katherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): Really important to get the win at Rotherham Lee — now, equally, I guess, important to be able to follow that up with two games back at the Accu Stadium?
Yeah, absolutely. We have to keep searching for our consistency and our level more often, and with such a strong display at the weekend, we want to make sure we back that up going into the next couple for sure.
KH: What did you particularly enjoy about the performance at Rotherham that you want to see replicated again against Port Vale?
Attention to detail around the defensive habits. We were there for each other, very often, good cover. The line work was excellent. Habits around our individual defending was really good. And I like the feel and the energy that I got from the group in terms of their desire to do all the horrible bits as well.
KH: And of course, that’s something that you’ve been calling from from day one. What do you think it was that inspired that away at Rotherham, that perhaps they didn’t deliver for you in previous games?
Well, certainly from the group, there’s a hunger and a desire every week. I think probably they’re at the point as a group where they really are putting a lot of demand on themselves as well, and that’s important. So as much as I can be demanding and challenging and ask a lot from them, it has to, once they cross the line, come from a real internal desire, individually, but most importantly collectively, for the group to strive for their for their maximum.
I could see lots of that throughout the week, and I think I said it after the game, I was really pleased with how that translated into their work at the weekend.
… KH: There’s a lot of talk inevitably about the current form of Leo Castledine being recognised as the talent that he is…inevitably that comes with the fear that, ‘oh no, are Chelsea going to recall him, or is somebody else going to put a bid in to try and take him on a permanent basis?’. Where are you at with Leo going forwards?
I’m not anywhere with Leo, apart from I like having Leo here. I love selecting him when he’s fit and long may that continue.
KH: Do you have to plan for the possibility that he might move elsewhere in January?
No, no, that will be outside of our control if that happens.
I would very much hope that Leo would see the value in everything we’re giving him here, in terms of the coaching, the opportunity, and the experience he’s having with us as a football club. So yeah, I feel pretty secure in that.
Of course, like I say, everything outside of that is external to my control. So, you know, very difficult for me to have any impact on it.
… KH: You may be aware of a video that’s been doing the rounds on social media over the last 24 hours. Marcus Harness and Herbie Kane seem to have some kind of interaction — I don’t know who with, whether it was a fan of Huddersfield or someone else — but what’s gone on there? Are you in a position to tell us any more about that?
No, I’m not.
KH: Not aware or not able to expand on it?
No, I’m absolutely aware, of course.
I speak with my players a lot, and conversations I have with the players are detailed, of course, and everything that happens that can affect the group, externally, internally, I always make sure that that’s dealt with very quickly, and those conversations always stay where they where they happen, so that will continue to be the case.
We deal with all of that stuff in-house, and the players know my feelings, and the group know my feelings.
KH: I appreciate player confidentiality and those conversations remain private, absolutely understandably. Bigger picture, is this the difficulties of doing a high-profile job that and everybody having camera phones these days…how hard is it as a professional footballer to have a life outside of football and for situations like this sometimes to occur?
Yeah, I think, Katherine, you’re talking about something that’s wider than like socially now, for young people in general, it’s part of the landscape we live in.
Whether you are a high profile athlete, whether you are John from around the corner, there’s always somebody ready and willing to make your life difficult and do that via any means necessary, and obviously, there’s quite a few avenues nowadays, as you mentioned there, with camera phones and photos and the social networks that are readily available to everybody.
So yeah, things can escalate to points where perhaps they wouldn’t have done in the past, or perhaps become consumable in terms of things end up in in the spotlight when perhaps they wouldn’t have done [previously].
That’s where that’s where the world is, and I think everybody has a responsibility to be able to understand that landscape and to work with within and around it, whatever constraints there are, and everybody has those responsibilities individually, like I say.
With regards to our group, they will know my feelings on it really clearly, and they’re all aware of the responsibilities they have as custodians of our principles and everything that the football club stands for. So as I said, that’s all really, really clear in-house, and we’ve got to make sure that we are upholding all of those values and principles as much as we can every single day, regardless of on duty, off duty. That’s all really important for me.
… Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): How’s Leo doing after his his little kick on Saturday?
It’s a bit of a difficult one in terms of where he gets it, so they’re always sore, but he’s going to be OK. That’s my feeling right now as we stand.
Obviously, we’ve got a couple of days to see how that progresses, but it’s a sore one top of the foot, but nothing at this point where I’ll be really unduly concerned. My hope is that the next couple of days he manages to do the work that’s needed to keep himself in and around it.
SC: Are there any other injury updates you can give us either way?
We have Will Alves still pushing and working his way back in. Obviously we have some quite strict guidelines from his parent club (Leicester) in terms of how much and how soon we can push so we’ve got to make sure we tick those off.
Because of the nature of the injury, it’s a bone injury that really, there is just a certain amount of time for us all to be really certain about that healing process being concluded. So we’re getting close to the end of that block now. These three days of work were really good for Will and after the next couple we should have him close getting him ready for selection.
Zeppi [Redmond] is working his way back really well in terms of his fitness. He’s got a bit to do still, but he’s pushing, and he’s training hard, and again, these three days will be important for him.
Other than that, Mickel Miller and Marcus McGuane are on the grass at the moment, so that’ll be a nice surprise, I think, for everybody today to have them back in and around it — but they’re right at the beginning of their sort of on-grass and with-team exposure, so we’ve still got a bit to go with them.
Bojan Radulovic
KH: Obviously, great assist and a really nice goal for you against Rotherham at the weekend. How pleased were you with your performance?
Yeah, of course. So glad about the about the performance, not only mine, I think from the whole team, we have shown character. We have shown a lot of things that we are missing, probably, the last few games where we know getting that that win or the performance we we wanted. And I think this game sums everything up. And at the end, of course, we we get good result in a tough, tough game.
KH: In terms of those couple of things that were perhaps missing in previous performances. Then can you give me a couple of examples of what you mean?
Probably more, I would say, not only defensively, but also in the last third of the pitch. In this game, we were able to score three goals. Of course, we didn’t probably create a lot from from open play or playing the ball, but it was more like playing a simple and direct and of course, yeah, we could have scored probably one or two more goals.
But also, I would say defensively, we look much better than the other games, a bit more solid. But yeah, of course, that kind of games, it gives you that mentality that you have to play if you want to get the win on this kind of of of pitch surfaces, or these sorts of games where we needed to get that win.
So, yeah, the win was a positive one or for the team that is going to give us that energy and boost for for the upcoming games.
KH: Obviously it’s a very busy time of year for you as footballers over the Christmas period, lots of games to contend with. But do you manage to enjoy a bit of Christmas spirit, a bit of Christmas downtime at all?
Of course, we all want to to enjoy that, but we also know that we have to play, we have to still work, do our job. So yeah, it’s going to be a bit of both, but always with being smart.
But yeah, it’s a nice time to spend with family and friends. Christmas Day, it’s going to be different this year again, because of course, you cannot do a lot of things, because the next day we play on the Boxing Day. So yeah, it’s going to still be special. But with being smart.
KH: Have you got family, friends that you’d be able to spend time with, even for a short time on Christmas Day this year?
Yeah, my family is coming from Spain, so we’ll be at home on the 25th here. So yeah, it’s going to be a bit busy!
