Cameras were focused on Unai Emery when Aston Villa’s head coach sat down for his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon.
The Spaniard was quizzed on a number of topics ahead of Villa’s trip to Anfield to play Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
“Philippe Coutinho is still injured, and the other players are ready to play.
“We’re going to wait for the training session tomorrow morning and if everything is going well, the players available are the same players we had last week.
“Today Calum Chambers was sick but I think tomorrow he is going to be ready to try to travel with us.”
Asked about Coutinho, Emery added: “I talked with him this week; he’s a little bit unlucky with his month because I didn’t see him play matches like I want.
“But, of course, with the injuries coming, we have to be patient as well, now we are going to wait for his recovery.
“This year, he’s not going to play again until the end of this season because we are finishing in two weeks.”
On being nominated for Manager of the Season…
“We want to take some trophies or be respected for our work, but I’m trying to be focused every day on getting better and trying to improve.
“Our way here has only just started and I’ve only been here for 10% of the time I want to be here, trying to improve, trying to build a strong project and get our objectives.
“For now, I’m proud of everybody here.”
On his work ethic…
“I always try to enjoy my work, and I do enjoy it every day. I feel passion for my work. When we are playing and facing big challenges every week, every month, every year, you have to be very focused and spend a lot of time on getting the best results possible.
“When I can have two days off, I enjoy it and I’m trying to take my mind out of my work – not completely, but I enjoy doing different things.
“When I am focused here – preparing the training sessions, preparing for matches, trying to complete our work – of course I am spending a lot of hours here.”
On Villa’s European ambitions…
“I love Europe. I really want to play Europe because after 15 years, spending a lot of time playing amazing matches, amazing performances and amazing matches, I am here to try and do the same with Aston Villa.
“My focus, my passion, is to play here feeling strong emotions together, firstly in the Premier League, secondly trying to be close to trophies and then playing in Europe.
“That is my motivation every day. It’s the reason we have to be focused and, involving the people around us, thinking about football and the possibilities in our life.”
On playing Liverpool…
“When you have the ball, they are going to press you strongly for 90 minutes. When they have the ball, it’s very difficult to recover the ball and press them.
“They have very good players, they have a very good structure and they have strong players in each position.
“They have very high-level players and a good bench to use in the second half, and they also have a very good coach in Klopp.
“The crowd there are supporting them a lot; that is what we are going to face. I want to play against them, preparing the match and taking our moments.
“We want to be successful more than them in 90 minutes – that is the difficulty we are going to face. We need to be clinical.”
