WATCH FOR A SUMMARY AND DETAILS ON GARY O'NEIL'S PRESS CONFERENCE
FULL DETAILS OF GARY O’NEIL’S PRESS CONFERENCE
How bad has the start of the season been?
Points-wise, obviously bad, very bad. And then if you look at performances, I’m the most, I’ll be the biggest critic of my team. I know we will face criticism from outside. Fans, Matt Hobbs, Jeff, whoever it is who will have an opinion on, I’ll have the most critical opinion I can assure you of the team. And I felt a real need to be critical of them after the second half against Chelsea, after the second half against Aston Villa, and after the 90 minutes at Brentford.
I thought we were below our own standards in those. And the rest of it, we’ve given a good go against some tough opposition. And come up a bit short.
Of course, we’re now seven games in with one point, which if you don’t look into the depths of how and why, it sounds like a disaster. And there’s two very tough games coming up in the next 10 days as well. But if you are, if you do care enough to take the time to look into the situation and the fixtures and how the team has performed, you will easily see that there is enough there to have a real clear view that we can turn this around.
And I have 100% faith in myself and in the playing group that together we will show everybody that we’re more than capable of competing at level. Of course, the longer it goes on, the more urgent it becomes. But comfortable with that, I think since I’ve been sat in a seat like this, maybe two years now, probably.
Some of that as interim, but all in the Premier League, all with teams that have been tipped for relegation. So these sort of situations and where we are at this moment is no real, yeah, nothing that I haven’t seen or faced. So really confident and really comfortable that I can help the group in this moment and turn it around.
We just heard from Pep Guardiola in his conference. He said that Wolves are better than their points suggest this season. Do you think people have been sort of too quick to panic, to judge based on where you are this season, that there are actually positive things that people are not ignoring, but probably not voting on?
No, I think it would be unrealistic of me to think that everybody outside of here is going to have a real detailed look at how we’ve played and the numbers and just look at the league table. We’ve got one point from seven and everyone start panicking would be the reaction that I would expect outside of here. But important that we have anunderstanding of where we are and what we’re trying to do.
Also important that I understand that one point from seven isn’t good enough and saying that we’re better than that. I understand what Pep’s saying, but we need to show it and we need to prove it. And that tipping point will come soon where we can’t sit here forever and say, yeah, we had tough games and lost a couple of important players in the summer and it’s like, OK, well, now what?
Come on then, let’s go. So at some point that’s going to come and we need to get it going. Good two weeks for me to look at all the games, look at maybe where we got to structure-wise off the back of signed a few players late in the window in areas that maybe we hadn’t prepped for and tried to move a few things around.
So a good little window for me there to have a look at where we’re at and try and get us back to something that I think will give us a real good chance in the next few weeks of picking up some results.
How is Hwang Hee-Chan? How bad is it and is it as bad as it potentially could be?
Well, it depends, I guess. It’s not nothing.
There’s something there. Injured a ligament on the inside of his ankle. But probably from now, probably a couple to a few weeks.
Nothing overly long. And I think Channy gives him a moment now, because if you think where Hee-Chan was this time last year and the form he was in and how sharp he looked since he’s gone away to the Asia Cup last season and come back and picked up a couple of injuries, he’s never really been able to get back to that. So I think it gives Hee-Chan a chance now to, obviously he needs to rest and he needs to recover the ankle, but to try and get himself in a place that he gets sharp and he gets fit and he gets himself in a really good spot that he’s able to come back and impact the Premier League in the way that he showed he could last season.
Obviously, since last time we spoke, there’s a new England manager. I just want to know your reaction to Thomas Tuchel getting the job?
I think it’s the responsibility of the FA to appoint the best man for the job.
I’m guessing there will be part of the country that would want it to be an English manager. But I don’t think that’s on the FA or on Thomas. I think that’s on us as a nation.
You need to pick the best man for the job. If the best man’s not English, then that’s on us. So next time it comes around, can the nation make sure that the best man for the job is English?
And then we have a top manager that has won stuff and he comes from the country that he’s managing. But yeah, no issue for me. He’s a fantastic manager. I don’t think I’ve come up against his team before. I think he’d already left Chelsea by the time I was in charge. But I watched a lot of his stuff and he’s a top manager.
He’ll get instant respect of the group because of what he’s done. And hopefully he can take what Gareth did over the last few years and progress it even further and help us win a major trophy.
Are you confident that England will be in a position where, either at the end of Tuchel’s contract or whenever they decide to make that change, that there will be an English manager in the position to take over?
I’m not sure. Obviously a lot of things can happen between now and then. I know there are a lot of good up-and-coming English coaches that are working very hard.
But like I say, it’s on English coaches across the country or wherever they are working abroad to convince the people. The same as when you’re trying to get club jobs. There’s so many people.
Every time you want to get a job in the Premier League or in the Championship, there’ll be 400 applicants probably from all over the world because the Premier League and the Championship and the England manager, this country is a special place to work in football-wise. So it doesn’t matter where you’re from. You just need to be really, really good.
Thomas obviously is that. And I’m delighted for him that he gets the opportunity because it is a talented group that he gets to work with. So a good opportunity for him and the team to push on and win something.
You know the coaching structure in this country better than most, though. Is the structure in place? Because obviously we know so many people are trying to apply for licences and not being able to get them.
You say there’s lots of applicants, but it also feels like the pipeline isn’t necessary for people to get into football and to be able to bring their ideas and be able to develop within the game.
Yeah, no, I think every case will be different. I can only talk about my own experiences and of course probably my playing career and people that I’ve met along the way helped me in that.
But I’ve been given fantastic opportunities to work at Liverpool, to under-23s, straight off the back of a playing career, to then be employed as a first-team coach at Bournemouth. So yeah, my opinion is that if you’re good enough, then people will see that and people will trust you with big jobs. So that isn’t saying that everybody that hasn’t had their break yet isn’t good enough.
You have to work, things have to fall in place. But no, I’m confident that we’re moving inthe right direction. I think you look at Eddie Howe taking Newcastle to the Champions League.
Fantastic achievement if you think where Eddie started, the bottom of League Two.
Incredible journey. Graham Potter got the opportunity to manage a top club in Chelsea.
So we’ve had some recently that have got close to that top level. And we just, as a nation, as coaches, need to keep working and keep trying to improve. You’re welcome.
Hi Gary, you mentioned a little bit about the international break. Has there been a chance for you and the squad to reflect and then maybe draw a line under it and then say, right, from now this is what we need to do to get points on the board, get wins on the board?
Yeah,
The first thing is most of them are away. So the ones that were here have worked really hard. And it’s not really a let’s throw everything away that we’ve done because there’s loads in there that was good.
So we need to look at what we can do to improve it. And maybe, yeah, obviously this week’s different because it’s Manchester City and their preparation for a Manchester City game is different to most other weeks because it’s a hell of a lot of focus around what they’re going to be and what we’re going to have to do to stop them. So it’s slightly different this week.
But the team have a good understanding of where we’re trying to get to. They understand what the Manchester City game may look like. And then they know what’s coming in the next few weeks.
We don’t have to play teams in the top eight for the whole season. Games where we get to play teams in and around lower parts of the league doesn’t mean they’re any easier, but it means we need to be ready for them. And we need to make sure that we’re in a place mentally where this run hasn’t affected how ready we are for the next challenge.
You’re one of very few coaches to have masterminded a victory against a Pep Guardiola Manchester City side. The question is, just over a year ago now I think it is, can you do it again and what’s the key?
The key that day was an unbelievable discipline from the team, a counter-attacking threat and a real togetherness and fight, which you will need.
And then obviously Manchester City maybe not quite being at their best and not being as ruthless as they can be. But yes, it’s a tough game. Of course it’s a tough game.
But I’m looking forward to it because it gives us an opportunity to show you can never control the result. The result will be the result. There’s outside factors that will be able to affect that, decisions and bad breaks and opposition quality. But what we need to take care of is a performance that the fans can unite with and can see that the team are fighting for everything. And that’s what we aim to do against the best team in world football.
And just finally from me, have you set a target points tally between now and the next international break to say you want to be here or there or is it just game by game?
No, just game by game. You can’t predict anything in the Premier League. So we attack every game.
We try to beat Manchester City, we try to beat Brighton, Palace and Southampton before the break. Try to win all four, see where we get to. But the lads, yes, I’m really confident that the lads understand the importance of the next few weeks.
And we need to put some points on the board.
Hello Gary. The squad’s a little bit different to that Manchester City game last year. Not very different, a few different obviously. Do you still have the same qualities in the squad that you just destroyed?
We’ll miss Pedro Neto’s counter-attacking threat, of course.
We do have others in there that are capable. But no, the squad, we’ve got centre-backs available that can play in a similar way that we did if we decide to go that way. So no, there’s opportunities there for us to put on a real good performance against a real tough opposition and give ourselves a chance in a tough Premier League game.
So the squad is different. I think the front three that day would have been Channy, Cunha and Pedro. Obviously it’s not going to be that.
So there will be some differences. But still an opportunity there for us to do enough and make sure that we’re well disciplined enough to give ourselves an opportunity to try and win the football match.
You’ve talked a few times this season about the emotions in the squad, which is a plus and can sometimes almost get in the way. Brentford was the first game where it felt like things snowballed a bit when mistakes were made and it led to more mistakes. We could see how upset the players were at the end, obviously. Have you got any way of controlling those emotions to make them more effective?
Yeah, they can be. I think the Brentford game was a real shock and maybe a shot in the arm to everybody around. If we’re not at it and we’re going to make mistakes, it’s not just the top teams that are going to be able to beat us in this league.If you turn up and you just make unbelievable mistakes for goals, everybody in this league is going to be able to beat you. So that can’t happen. So I think it was one where maybe off the back of a bad run, you see Brentford come in at the end of it and you think, OK, let’s go to Brentford and let’s win.
It’s never, ever going to be that easy. You need to take care of all your own bits around your game. Conceded some goals that were almost unexplainable and it did then just snowball into an afternoon where the game never really got going for us.
We were always chasing and chasing and chasing and then in the end, you end up opening up and causing some problems to yourself. So a bad day for us, the Brentford day. But one that hopefully lets the lads realise that no matter who we play at this level, we need to be 100 per cent on our game.
And apart from Channy, you talked about is everyone else fit?
Yeah, everybody else is the same as it was before apart from Channy, yeah.
GARY O’NEIL summary
