Manager's Honest Assessment After Defeat to Brentford

The final whistle had barely gone when the verdict came. Brutal. Honest. And from the manager himself.

“Bad game. We lost and suffered the difference in the duels. It was the key of this game. We didn't fight in the right way.”

There was no attempt to dress it up. Outmuscled, outrun and outplayed in the individual battles, his side had been second best all over the pitch against a Brentford team that thrived on exactly that chaos.

Outfought and out of rhythm

The story of the afternoon, in his eyes, was simple: Brentford won their fights; his players didn’t.

“We were not ready to fight the duels,” he admitted. “We arrived too many times late and we lost too many duels to compete with Brentford.”

The manager pointed straight at the physical gap between the teams. A staggered return after the World Cup, a raft of new signings, and a starting XI still feeling its way into the season all combined to leave his side short of intensity and cohesion.

“Our physical condition was not at the right level for all players because many came later after the World Cup and there were many new players in the squad and first XI,” he said. “We have to analyse this game better because we can't play this way in this type of game.”

He name-checked Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke and Sandro Tonali as not yet at full tilt. They played, but they were clearly not where he needs them to be.

“We knew that before the game,” he added. “We have to improve on that and many other things, like organisation and pressing.”

No excuses, only explanations

He kept circling back to the same point: context matters, but it doesn’t excuse what happened.

“I am surprised by the result and performance. I knew we were not in the right condition. We can't find an excuse. I am sorry for the result and performance.”

The new project, he stressed, has barely started. The principles he wants to build on – structure, pressing, aggression – did not appear for long enough, or in the right moments.

“We are starting a new project and we couldn't find the principal,” he said. “With a lot of new players, we knew we needed soul and style of play to become a team. Today I think there was the soul but we didn't fight in the right way.”

The soul was there. The duels were not.

Brentford as the benchmark

If his team needed a live example of what he wants, they had it in front of them in red and white.

“Maybe credit to them because it's the best quality Brentford have,” he said of their intensity. “Brentford's spirit on the pitch was great, it has to be the right example for us.”

His analysis of the first half was damning. The pressing was off, the distances were wrong, and Brentford pounced.

“Especially in the first half, we were not in the right position to make the right pressure,” he said. “If you analyse the game, you can see how many duels we lost in the first half when the game went in Brentford's direction.”

They mis-timed their press, particularly around young Mikey Moore, and paid for it.

“We made a lot of mistakes in the timing of the pressure with Mikey Moore,” he admitted. “We arrived too many times late.”

Line-up, belief and what comes next

Questions will inevitably follow about whether the starting XI will change in the coming weeks. He pushed back on the idea that this group cannot compete.

“The first XI should be able to compete normally if the game went in this way,” he said. “I don't lose confidence in my players and these people. We have to work and improve, analyse the game better and find the improvement.”

He was just as firm when the subject of more signings came up.

“I don't want the excuse that the first XI was not enough to compete and get a result,” he insisted.

The focus, for him, is internal: fitness, organisation, and a sharper edge in every challenge.

“I know we have to improve in our physical condition, in the organisation,” he said. “There were many new players but it was the first game. It's part of our journey.”

He will not tear it all up after one bad afternoon.

“We have to analyse this game. We cannot destroy everything because we are working well. Physical condition is not the same for all players because many started the season later. I don't want to make excuses but we need to keep improving.”

The message to his squad was clear: he still believes in them, but the standard has been set.

“Players know I have a lot of confidence in them and we hope to improve quickly,” he said. “We need to find the right spirit to fight but today, it wasn't there. I expected better for sure. I didn't expect this result but I knew the problems we would find today.”

The problems are now out in the open. The question is how quickly this new project can turn bruising lessons into something far more convincing.