Burnley's Kompany on poor home form, challenge of Brentford and relegation battle (Full Presser)
Burnley manager Vincent Kompany on their poor home form, challenge of Brentford and relegation battle
Burnley, UK
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00:00 Hi, Metin. First off, I feel like every week the games get bigger. Last season you only
00:09 lost one game at home in the league. This season you've only won one game at home in
00:13 the league. What's happened at Turf More this season?
00:16 It's a different league. The easiest way to say it is last season, this season. It's just
00:23 a different league. But it doesn't take away the fact that we'd like to win. At home we'd
00:28 like to win more. We've been close a few times. Saturday is an opportunity for us.
00:37 You talk about the closeness and now dropped 20 points from winning positions this season.
00:42 When you look at the table, do you think what could have been?
00:46 It's always been said it's the hardest thing to score the first goal. That's not been a
00:54 problem for us. I think this season, you guys have looked into the statistics more than
01:00 I have for this, but it looks like it's a strikers' league at the moment. I don't think
01:05 we're any exception to that. Teams in this league, and that makes it the best league
01:11 in the world in my opinion, teams find a way to score. We have to do the same and score
01:16 more.
01:17 Has that been the biggest problem? Is that your biggest frustration this season, not
01:21 scoring enough goals?
01:22 No, I wouldn't express it as frustration. I think we've gone through this and we've
01:27 got on with stuff. It's just when you are where you are, you can name a number of things
01:38 and you can start listing things out. I don't think that's the point for us right now. We've
01:44 been close but not been able to get the points over the line and that's all we have to focus
01:49 on now.
01:50 You do have a forward in good form in David Datreu-Fofana. How good is he?
01:58 Allow me to make that statement a little bit later. He's on track for where he's at in
02:04 his age and obviously the fact that Chelsea bought him is because they must have thought
02:10 he was a big talent. I followed him some time before he went to Chelsea. I knew him, I spoke
02:17 to him before and it was nice to pick it up. We just needed his profile so it's been good
02:25 for us. But whatever he did against West Ham, if he's done it once and he's played well
02:31 against Liverpool as well, we'll need it another ten times. There's no other way.
02:35 Are there any fresh injury concerns ahead of the game at the weekend and also an update
02:44 on Hanno and Mesengo and also Jordan Beyer?
02:47 No fresh injury concerns, maybe a few positive surprises we'll see. Most of the players
02:58 that have been important for us this season are close to return, are doing well and hopefully
03:04 the international break will see our squad bolster again.
03:10 Into the last ten games of the season, what is it that you want to see from your players
03:14 in the remaining games?
03:17 Not too dissimilar from the Bournemouth and West Ham performance. My thing is we need
03:25 the three points, we need goals, we need to win games. But I can't sit here and say that
03:35 the lads haven't given everything. Sometimes they've come short and sometimes it's because
03:41 we haven't played well. But most of the time they've given everything and it's been close.
03:50 These types of situations can often turn. You can turn misfortune into something that
04:00 gives you results. We just have to do everything we can, at least mentally, to believe that
04:06 moment can be tomorrow.
04:08 What did you take from the defeat against Brentford?
04:14 That was one of the bad games we played this season. I think it was one of the turning
04:20 points as well. I don't know if Bournemouth was before or after we went away to Bournemouth
04:24 as well. But definitely there were two bad games for us and after that I think every
04:30 game except for the Palace and Arsenal performance, we competed in every game since those games.
04:37 I think we changed our intensity a little bit. We changed a few things as well tactically.
04:44 We sharpened up. It's not given us enough results but it got us in games and it got
04:49 us a few results. Hopefully it will show that we've progressed from that day.
04:57 When the goals have come for you this season, 85% of them have been from open play, would
05:01 you like to see your team making more of the opportunities that you have from set-pieces?
05:05 It's how you want to look at it. The positive thing is that we do score goals from open
05:18 play and that's not an easy thing to do. When it comes to the set-play situation, if you
05:24 analyse what's happened for us in set-pieces, attacking-wise, we've actually been fairly
05:31 dangerous so our chance creation from set-pieces is absolutely above most of the teams we're
05:38 competing with at the moment. The issue is, and it's a degree of sometimes quality, sometimes
05:46 timing of players in their careers, the issue for us is when that header is a clear header
05:51 on the back post or the front post, it's to put it in. The issue is not being creating
05:57 chances of set-plays, we've had plenty of chances of set-plays, we're actually a dangerous
06:01 team on set-plays. We'd like to convert a little bit more but again, it's the same,
06:06 it could be next game. That's how you have to believe at least.
06:09 Vincent, you say it's a strikers' league, can you expand on that a little bit for me
06:17 please?
06:18 It's just every game I'm watching, I'm not seeing a lot of defenders handling their opponents
06:23 at the moment. It doesn't matter who you play, if you watch the Tottenham strikers, the amount
06:26 of times they get in, if you watch every team. I think it's good for football but there's
06:34 more runs in behind. It's also a little bit more difficult to just sit back and defend
06:39 because teams tactically understand how they need to create overloads, how they need to
06:45 also keep you in, pin you in. Every team has got quite good principles of reacting when
06:51 they lose the ball, recovering the ball, transition again. So that counter-press, it used to be
06:56 only Liverpool doing it and then obviously City was one of the teams that was doing it
07:02 as well but now every team counter-presses. So that means as well, if you just invite
07:07 them to come, it's harder to get out than it used to be, even on transitions. So then,
07:15 I guess by default, teams are going more aggressive and pressing higher and they've got the profiles
07:19 to do because every player can run 12k, 12.5k, 1,200m high intensity, 2-4, 5-6, 6-7, 7-8,
07:26 500m, some of them 6-700m sprint. I'm watching throughout the league and you've got teams
07:36 like Bournemouth, Solanke and Semenyuk up front, you've got teams like Fulham, they've
07:41 got a tremendous striker, the big Mexican fella, Jimenez, unbelievable. But they've
07:49 got proper high quality players up front, Wolverhampton have got Kunjad and so on and
07:54 so on. The spaces get bigger because you have to but the strikers are, in my opinion, of
08:06 a high calibre and you just have to look tomorrow. In that game you've got Ivan Toni up front
08:13 and Vissa and Mbwemo and also we've got a few guys who can hurt the opposition team
08:18 but every team has that. Brighton have got Ferguson and so on and you keep going. I'm
08:25 kind of expanding as I'm mentioning it to you now because I do remember probably as
08:33 I was playing where teams could have an advantage defensively and exploit that. It just doesn't
08:39 seem that way to me anymore. Maybe you guys will analyse it in more depth and say look,
08:45 that's not true. But when I look at every game it seems to be that way.
08:50 Do you think the art of defending, the desire to be difficult to play and difficult to beat
08:55 and be proud to keep a clean sheet, are those things perhaps waning a little bit in the
09:00 Premier League?
09:01 No, absolutely no. I don't think there's a lack of desire. In fact, defending now is
09:06 harder because you're defending bigger spaces, you're more often exposed yourself against
09:13 these high quality strikers. But I don't think coaches in general, if everyone does it, it
09:21 means there's a reason why they're doing it. They probably do it because the real zonal,
09:29 deep defending kind of, I would say, at this moment in time tactics have for many coaches
09:39 maybe not given what they wanted to. It goes in trends, it might change again in a few
09:43 years but any team we play against now, it's kind of full on and it's everyone. That's
09:52 what makes this league so good. You have to remember my mindset is never, I'm not philosophical
09:58 in that aspect. I'm just witnessing it and I'm stating what I see. Maybe you see the
10:03 same thing.
10:05 You spoke to Josh Cullen this week and he was speaking about the look beyond just this
10:11 season, look at the bigger picture, the cycle of the football club, where it's at and whether
10:15 it's staying up or going down, whether it's Premier League football next season or not.
10:20 It's about making this club competitive in the long term. Is that quite nice to hear
10:24 that from one of your players?
10:27 But I think everyone in the club understands that. That's why we don't get dragged into
10:32 anything other than the next game. That's all that matters. We've probably stated this,
10:39 I think what we've done is we've done the right thing by stating it at the beginning
10:43 of the season consistently and in moments where we had time to reflect. But now we're
10:48 in the middle of the season, I can guarantee you that the only priority for us is to make
10:54 the most of the next ten games we have and at the end we can always reflect again. But
11:00 probably that's why the club has been fairly consistent and calm.
11:06 You had a really good performance on Sunday and a good point at West Ham. You're within
11:10 ten points of safety, you've got Forrest to play at home, they could yet be deducted points.
11:15 There's still a really interesting period to come I think, isn't there, this season?
11:20 I try not to look too much at the other teams and you know that. But I do look for… my
11:29 life is like this, I look for any opportunity to do something special. And any season, this
11:38 season can still be that. So why throw away this opportunity? It's ten games and you never
11:44 know. We experienced something fantastic last year but there's absolutely no reason why
11:50 the next ten games cannot give us the same feeling back and that's how we have to approach
11:54 it.
11:55 Would that be a bigger achievement from this?
11:56 Yes, absolutely. Having said that… Do you know what? If we had came down with the parachute
12:06 money and if we had came down with the squad, for some reason I looked at the squad planning
12:11 from May 2022, I had two plays. Let that sink in, two plays and we're built from that.
12:22 So to the point where now we have stories about why does he play or he doesn't play.
12:27 But we're built from having two plays. Everybody else was leaving and we had… we managed to
12:35 re-sign Jack Cork and we had Goodmanson that we kept and Jey Rodriguez and that was it.
12:42 And there was a couple of guys that were injured and their contracts were running out. But
12:47 we built from nothing with no parachute money. Yes, that's a pretty decent achievement.
12:56 What have you made of Brentford this season? Are you surprised they are in that lower part
13:03 of the division?
13:04 It's just a tough league. I've not paid too much attention to other teams in that sense
13:11 and I've missed the main striker for a long time. So we know the impact that can have.
13:17 How about Amine Alderkeel? Not seen much of him in the last few weeks. Is he fit?
13:21 No, injured. He's been injured since he was out of the squad. I think his last game was
13:27 Tottenham Hotspur. Which was actually a really good performance but he's just been injured.
13:33 Is he one of those ones that could be a surprise return on Saturday?
13:36 He's not on the surprise return list, no.
13:38 After this game you've got the international break. What sort of plans do you have for
13:41 those two weeks?
13:42 Pretty standard. Usually you use the first week to review the last trench of games, the
13:52 last ten games, the last eight games and build towards the next nine. Usually during the
14:00 international break you'll have an eye on pre-season and all these types of things.
14:05 Nothing more than normal. Then build up to Chelsea when we recover our international
14:08 players.
14:09 A number of core players have been here a long time. Their contracts are up this summer.
14:25 Have you had any conversations with them about possible renewals?
14:28 We'll have the conversation for sure. But the timing of it is probably not going to
14:35 be in the next two days. But for sure we'll have the conversation. We've done it in the
14:39 past with other players.
14:41 Is that something you could use the international break for or is it something that needs to
14:45 wait until the end of the season and you know the league status?
14:49 Usually I use the international break to think about those issues and then I will come with
14:54 a way to handle those issues in that period of time. Ask me in two weeks' time and I'll
15:02 have a very definite answer.
15:04 What are the key things you're working on with your defenders to help them win those
15:26 battles and get up to the level they need to be when they're facing so many different
15:31 striker profiles?
15:33 A lot of the learning happens as you play. We'll give them the information. We'll have
15:41 sessions and drills and meetings but that's pretty normal I think in this day and age.
15:47 We do all of that of course. But the biggest thing is you learn on the job. You learn when
15:52 you face top strikers. That's how you do it.
15:58 I said it's a strikers' league but it doesn't mean in any case in my books it's not that
16:02 the defenders are any worse because defenders used to have to run 9, 9.5k. I remember I
16:09 played with Richard Dunne and I had a look at the stats at the time and he was a top,
16:14 top defender. But he was running 9k per game, 9.5k and that was enough to be a top defender.
16:22 Defenders nowadays they run 11, 12, they're chasing strikers. They've got two, three,
16:25 four hundred metre sprints. You'd get 50 metre sprints, you'd need three days recovery back
16:31 in a day. It's just changed. I'm just really almost as a neutral observing and witnessing
16:42 it and like everyone else that's why things are adapting. That's why things are evolving.
16:49 You mentioned the Brentford v Bournemouth game and those two bad games and then you
16:53 sort of looked to change things. I guess Arsenal and Palace in terms of results were sort of
16:58 similar maybe. Is there anything you've changed since for the two performances you've had
17:03 or was it just a case of getting back to basics, reminding everyone of what I've been working
17:09 to a bit?
17:10 No, you also have to expect in a season that if you separate results and performance you're
17:17 going to have bad performances in a season as well. The Arsenal game is sort of you go
17:25 like they're really good at the moment but the Palace game, even if there was a red card
17:31 for us that leaves something where this was the game for us. But if you separate performance
17:38 from result then after that we just picked it off where we would have liked to be against
17:45 Palace ultimately. I'll take a result and a bad performance just to be clear but it
17:53 doesn't seem to be yielding that for us at the moment. So then we need the performance
17:59 and the result.
18:00 Last season and this season you've talked about not being distracted by outside influences
18:05 and I suppose when it gets to this point of the season everyone's talking about every
18:09 team and the possibilities and who's picking up points here. How do you not get distracted
18:14 by that? How do you make sure your players aren't distracted by what other teams are
18:19 doing?
18:20 For me it's easy to handle but how the players handle it that's obviously different. All
18:28 I try and do is share with them because again whether in relegation or at the top we can't
18:35 control whether Luton's going to win or lose against Bournemouth and what the other teams
18:40 will do around us. We literally have zero control over that. So you can put your hopes
18:46 too high sometimes or too low. The point is more what we control is the next game, it's
18:52 the Brentford performance and nothing else really matters. There's no point talking about
18:56 anything else if you don't turn up on the day.
18:57 Will you watch other teams? Did you watch last night or will you try and take yourself
19:01 off from it?
19:02 Unless there's a team that we will play against I don't spend any time on that. I watch enough
19:10 games and football every single day.
19:13 Josh Cullen has come back into the side, you've worked with him for a number of years at Anderlecht
19:18 and here. Can you talk a little bit about his influence in the last couple of appearances
19:24 that he's made but also off the pitch as well when he's not been playing and players get
19:30 frustrated. What's the influence he's been on off the pitch in recent months?
19:38 When we have the ten games left I try and avoid too much of the individual story. But
19:43 in all fairness I did mention Fofana. It's more a case of all the things you describe.
19:53 We all read books about all these high achievers and we're all good at saying this if not practising
19:59 it ourselves and telling it to our kids. But you've got guys that really live by it. Tough
20:06 times you work hard, you work harder, you're supportive for the team. Good times you stay
20:11 level headed, focused, you still do your job, you turn up every single day, work hard. You've
20:16 got these guys who live by it and he's one of them.
20:19 So you'll probably have a lot of people at the start always saying well maybe there's
20:24 players who can do that better or this better. But in the end he just keeps improving because
20:29 he has the mindset and he always finds a way to be of value to the team whether he plays
20:36 or not. Obviously you need these types of players in your squad.
20:48 (door slams)