Frank frustrated by Brentford's 2-1 City defeat
14/09/2024
Etihad stadium, Manchester, UK
14/09/2024
Etihad stadium, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00If you can raise your hand when you want to go, we'll bring a mic to you.
00:10Simon, we'll start with Simon.
00:12Hi Thomas, perhaps just praise Brentford and you massively, but are you a bit frustrated in those first few minutes when you had the goal and all those chances?
00:28Yeah, first and foremost thank you for that Pep, always nice.
00:36I think there's a lot of reasons why I admire Pep, for many, many reasons.
00:44Of course, obviously a good manager, I think he's always been good to the show class.
00:48For example, he did it when we beat them last time.
00:53Last time anyone has beaten them here, I think it's almost 50 games.
00:57And that's one thing.
01:01Secondly, the way he reacts during a game.
01:05So we know he's fantastic in the build-up and the dominating game and the passing and controlling and all that.
01:12But he just made two changes, boom, half-time.
01:15Made more physicality in, maybe to match ours on set-pieces.
01:22Kovacic had a yellow after a reckless tackle.
01:28And then it's about winning, it's not about getting 1,000 passes.
01:34Then De Bruyne is just running down in the corner, last minute of the game.
01:38If he does that at Etihad, we at Brentford, probably done something well.
01:43I think the first 25 minutes...
01:48If Mercedes is the best team in the world, then we were world-class the first 25 minutes.
01:52I thought we were clearly on top, first half overall.
01:57I thought we were in type, I thought we were the best team, as we did.
02:03And probably did something that only Liverpool and Arsenal do.
02:06Maybe not.
02:08More possession, more shots on target, more XT.
02:11Second half, of course, is a top team.
02:13We lose a little bit of momentum, but we are in the game.
02:16And we probably need to take, as you said, one of those chances, one more, in the first 25-30 minutes.
02:24And then we need that little bit of margins with us.
02:27So we deflected a shot on the first one, and we made a mistake on the second one.
02:33With respect, when someone like Guardiola speaks as highly as he did of you,
02:39he also said that it's a matter of time before you join one of Europe's biggest clubs.
02:46How does that make you personally feel?
02:51Erm...
02:55It's always nice to get praise, but of course it's not only about me.
02:59I've got a very good group of players that are better than a lot of people think,
03:03and I've got a fantastic coaching staff and staff around me,
03:06and all that added together, then I hopefully do my part,
03:10then we make a good performance here.
03:13I said before that I'm very happy at Brentford,
03:16I'm very proud of what we keep on doing and keep developing.
03:20Maybe one day I'll try something new, we don't know.
03:29Can I just ask you, your team plays so well in that first half hour,
03:34and do what very few teams ever do, to sit here.
03:37How demoralising is it to then find yourself behind,
03:42against pretty much a phenomenal club from...
03:46How demoralising is it for players and you and the team in those moments?
03:51I think in the moment it's of course frustrating.
03:54After the game, because I was not a last-minute winner,
03:58I think it was more...
04:02I want to rephrase that a bit.
04:05I'm 50-50 between frustrated over not getting anything out of a game
04:10with such a good performance against City,
04:13but on the other hand extremely proud of what we've done.
04:18And I think when I look at it back,
04:21probably find a few details we've done better on the 1-1 goal,
04:24but it's still a deflected shot.
04:26It is smart, it's a deflected pass in as well, and it drops.
04:30And then the second one, yes, he's good, Erling,
04:34but we don't need to give him a free run down the middle.
04:38Even I know that when we are brave like we are and play man-man,
04:42it's clearly frustrating them, which we've done loads of times,
04:45and we did it the first time in the Premier League
04:48three or four years ago when we started.
04:52I know things like that can happen, but it's very, very rare.
04:57And it's Ethan Pinnock that's been our best centre-back in five years
05:01and normally got a hole-in-one in his pocket.
05:05Hi, Thomas.
05:06Could you explain what it's like in the opening moments
05:09to try to stop someone like Harvick
05:12going for the first goal of the season?
05:14And you kept it quiet until the end,
05:17but what was it like?
05:24I don't know, it's every game a different challenge.
05:28Of course he scored a hole-in, no doubt about that.
05:31But as you said, I think actually we did quite well.
05:33If that's the chance you get, a ball falling down into the box,
05:36that's a little bit difficult.
05:38And the second one, we knew what they would do,
05:41and Ethan just missed the ball.
05:45So I think besides that we did very well.
05:50Anybody else? Anything else?
05:53OK, we'll leave it there then.
05:54Thank you very much, everybody.