As for whether Alexis Mac Allister is taking advantage of the short break afforded to him by a two-game suspension in December…
No, because he played outstandingly before. When I think of Macca, I can’t find a bad performance from him. He is so consistent in his performances. Of course he’s not like Mo, Cody or Lucho who scored 15 goals and 12 assists, but he is so involved in every game we play. He is also very important for us defensively, because he brings the ball to these players. For me it didn’t find better performance after [la suspension]but I think that every player has every interest in sometimes having a few days or a period of leave in the long term. I was glad I was able to give it to him, but I don’t think his performances are any better today than before his break. I hope this break will allow him to perform even more consistently in February, March and April as well.
To find out if he has spoken to Alexander-Arnold since Sunday…
Yes, but I spoke to other players individually, which is what you do after almost every other game. I spoke to him before the match and then, as I already told everyone, I don’t share the things I talk to him about here [avec les médias]. It’s normal that you always talk to the players; in this situation it wasn’t his best match, so I had to show some things he needed to improve. That’s what you always do after every match. Sometimes you show how well they did, especially when it comes to their work rate. You don’t have to show off an awesome 80-yard pass because they know it. Sometimes you have to show them what they can improve on, but I didn’t do it just with Trent. We were just talking about Macca and I think if you look at the second goal we conceded with the cut cross, if he sprints a little harder he could also stop the shot from [Amad] Diallo. So there are always things you can improve, but in general they worked very hard and gave everything to get a result. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the best result, but we still got it.
On continuing the challenge for honors in the second half of the season…
It’s very difficult for me to compare last season with this season. The only thing I know is that what gives me the most confidence to look forward to the weeks and months ahead is that we haven’t stolen a point yet; all the points we got were fully deserved. I think even at times we deserved better than what we got by losing points. This is the best prediction you can have for the second half of the season. I don’t know how it went last season, if all the results were as expected or well deserved, or if there were a few lucky moments as well. I don’t know. What I do know is that all the points we got this season and all the results we got were deserved, in my opinion.
All the players are fit at the moment, but again, if we lose points when the team is injured, the players will say: ‘It’s because you’re injured’; Mo misses the penalty against [le Real] Madrid, he is distracted by his contractual situation; If Trent doesn’t perform at his best, he’s distracted by the contract situation. If they play really well, no one tells me it’s because they have a contract situation. We’re always trying to find arguments, but nine times out of ten the best argument is the quality of the teams you’re playing or the other team’s game plan.
United had a very good game plan: no build-up, at least not from the start, we have to place the ball too far and not give us the opportunity to press it high to move to a low block, which makes always difficult for each team to create chances, which we did quite a bit actually. I think it’s more about the game plan when we lose points than too many games, distracted players, injuries and all that kind of stuff. Nine times out of ten, it’s because of the team you’re facing.
