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Summary: Ronald Koeman's pre-QPR press conference

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Saint-Armstrong

Saint-Armstrong

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Ronald Koeman's pre-QPR press conference

 

- It isn't realistic for Southampton to qualify for the Champions League this season

- I remember one of the last questions you asked about us before the season, and that was totally different

- But, that's football...

- The season is 38 games long

- It's a long and tough season

- Okay, we have had a very good start with all the changes that we've made

- Expectations are higher than before the first game

- But it will be more difficult, we have to realise that and keep going with what we've done so far

- We planned to have Wednesday off, and José Fonte said to me 'Boss, we'd like to come to train tomorrow'

- I said 'But you have a day off, I planned a lot of things with my wife!'

- We changed it and we had a recovery session

- I have never had that, a squad saying 'no day off'

- That means a lot to me, and says a lot about the ambition of our players

- We said to them, if you beat QPR, you can have a day off next week

- We played the last three games with a different back four

- But every player has had a good performance

- QPR is not an easy one

- We have to prepare ourselves in the best way

- If we keep our way of playing and what we like to do, then maybe but we don't talk about Europe now

- We try to control that (players getting overly ambitious and leaving)

- But you can't control everything

- Belief is high at the moment and we are all happy

- We know, it's football, changes can come fast

- Our feeling is strong and we want to show that game-by-game

- Matthew is a young player and I am impressed by how he has played

- I am always a fan of putting young players in those type of games

- Because, they are the most difficult games

- Matthew, in my opinion, can be a fantastic player

- He has to continue with us

- He has to improve with us

- He has to get experience with us

- But we have to keep these young players

- If he has any issue with his contract, then tomorrow I will talk to him

- Contracts are up to Les Reed, but I want to keep players like Matthew

- From the moment I was manager of Southampton, we did not speak once about Caulker

- Before, I had never heard of Steven Caulker to connect him to the Saints

- I was the new coach at Feyenoord, and Leroy Fer had already accepted the offer of Twente

- I was disappointed because Twente is smaller than Feyenoord

- But I worked in a good way with him, he is a strong player

- I am happy for him that he has continued in the Premier League

- That kind of player has to be playing at the highest level possible

- He's a great player and I know his qualities

- He's still young and has a lot of potential

- We have enough midfield players here, so we don't need to look for that position

- Clyne is one of the best full-backs I have managed

- That is during the last fifteen years or so

- That means a lot, because I like to play with offensive full-backs

- He has the right qualities

- I am very happy with him

- But I am not in a position to tell somebody else's national coach to pick him

- He has showed his qualities since the beginning of the season

- If he continues like that, he will get a call soon

- Toby Alderweireld is back in training, it's looking positive

- Maya Yoshida didn't train with us today, but maybe he can train tomorrow

- Every game is difficult

- QPR had two difficult away games, Manchester United and Tottenham

- But they've played on a good level in their home games

- They're a little bit unpredictable

- They can play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, so we will see on Saturday

- We will prepare in the best way, to beat them

- Why is Harry Redknapp unpopular here? - (Simon Peach then explains why)

- What I see, even in away games, is a lot of respect from our crowd

- That's very different from Holland

- Harry Redknapp is in name, a successful manager with a lot of experience

- I am not the person to look through the managerial history of Southampton

- He is someone who I will respect, and everyone else should be respectful too

- We need players who decide to do the right pressing at the right time, not all the time

- Pressing starts with the attackers, and sometimes it is difficult for them

- They have to get back and do aggressive pressing

- It's a team quality

- It's my philosophy

- I'm not a coach who waits and defends

- It's impossible to press for 90 minutes

- We do sessions on how to wait for the right moment

- That needs time and sometimes we did that against Arsenal and sometimes not

- Against Arsenal, there was too much space between the midfield and the defence at time due to pressing

- But it needs time, I am happy with the pressing of the players so far

- The biggest focus was pressing, so far

- It was the biggest change I made in pre-season

- It's always difficult when you play three times in a week to get those sessions in

- But we have to learn to press properly

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iansums

iansums

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We planned to have Wednesday off, and José Fonte said to me 'Boss, we'd like to come to train tomorrow'

- I said 'But you have a day off, I planned a lot of things with my wife!'

- We changed it and we had a recovery session

- I have never had that, a squad saying 'no day off'

 

Brilliant!

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washsaint

washsaint

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More and more impressed with Koeman with each passing week. Very interesting that he is moving us away from constant pressing to a more intelligent pressing.

 

Saturday will be very interesting to see how we try and break down QPR - we couldn't manage it against WBA and I would expect QPR to play a similar game. Hopefully the pace of Mane and guile of Tadic will tie Caulker and Ferdinand in knots.

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iansums

iansums

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More and more impressed with Koeman with each passing week. Very interesting that he is moving us away from constant pressing to a more intelligent pressing.

 

Saturday will be very interesting to see how we try and break down QPR - we couldn't manage it against WBA and I would expect QPR to play a similar game. Hopefully the pace of Mane and guile of Tadic will tie Caulker and Ferdinand in knots.

 

Perhaps a few long range shots from Clyne?

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KingdomCome

KingdomCome

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Thanks for the details, couldn't listen at work.

 

Every time he speaks I just feel more and more that we really have landed on our feet with Koeman.

Fantastic to hear the team are keen to keep up the hard work.

 

The point about pressing is very good to hear. I felt under Pochettino we would press and press until we created a brick wall to try and get through.

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SO16_Saint

SO16_Saint

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We planned to have Wednesday off, and José Fonte said to me 'Boss, we'd like to come to train tomorrow'

- I said 'But you have a day off, I planned a lot of things with my wife!'

- We changed it and we had a recovery session

- I have never had that, a squad saying 'no day off'

 

Brilliant!

 

The randy bugger

 

:poundit:

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scotty

scotty

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"We planned to have Wednesday off, and José Fonte said to me 'Boss, we'd like to come to train tomorrow'

- I said 'But you have a day off, I planned a lot of things with my wife!' "

 

Its lucky as all hell that he didn't say the wife. Fonte would have punched his f*cking lights out. ;)

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SuperMikey

SuperMikey

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My favourite Koemanisms so far:

 

When asked a difficult question, he shrugs: "But that's football"

 

"Fantashtical"

 

"Shoushampton"

 

Any more?

 

I particularly like when he's talking about people and uses the wrong pronoun - for example..

 

"Morgan Schneiderlin, it'schh a fantastic player.."

"It'schh a player with fantashtic qualitieshh"

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Coxford_lou

Coxford_lou

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The point about pressing is very good to hear. I felt under Pochettino we would press and press until we created a brick wall to try and get through.

 

Yes, really fascinating to hear the differences between his pressing and Pochettino's. Sounded like he's asking the team to be more selective on when to press, and when they do, be faster with it. Would love to now see a Gary Neville analysis on this!

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Dublin Saint

Dublin Saint

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We planned to have Wednesday off, and José Fonte said to me 'Boss, we'd like to come to train tomorrow'

- I said 'But you have a day off, I planned a lot of things with my wife!'

- We changed it and we had a recovery session

- I have never had that, a squad saying 'no day off'

 

Brilliant!

 

I love this. Makes me proud to be a fan

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Lallana's Left Peg

Lallana's Left Peg

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They didn't really train, they just had a recovery session. Too much is being made of that.

 

I do like the way Koeman conducts himself. There is an honesty to what he says without it giving too much away or the possibility of it being misinterpreted. He is very reassuring. Will be interesting to see how he acts when we have a bad run - I would imagine he'll be the same but you never know.

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Patrick Bateman

Patrick Bateman

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Actually, just watching Koeman's conference, maybe I'm getting old, but I agree with him. If you look when the bloke was explaining about Redknapp, he winced when the guy said he will get grief - maybe it's time to focus on +ve support for the team? It didn't do us any favours two years ago after all.

 

God, I've become old and boring.

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syd_barrett_saint

syd_barrett_saint

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Ronald Koeman's pre-QPR press conference

 

- We need players who decide to do the right pressing at the right time, not all the time

- Pressing starts with the attackers, and sometimes it is difficult for them

- They have to get back and do aggressive pressing

- It's a team quality

- It's my philosophy

- I'm not a coach who waits and defends

- It's impossible to press for 90 minutes

- We do sessions on how to wait for the right moment

- That needs time and sometimes we did that against Arsenal and sometimes not

- Against Arsenal, there was too much space between the midfield and the defence at time due to pressing

- But it needs time, I am happy with the pressing of the players so far

- The biggest focus was pressing, so far

- It was the biggest change I made in pre-season

- It's always difficult when you play three times in a week to get those sessions in

- But we have to learn to press properly

 

This stuff about pressing is interesting to me. Is Koeman suggesting that the players didn't know how to press properly? That Poch had introduced pressing, but perhaps in quite a one-dimensional way that would tire our players out, and now Koeman is trying to re-teach them in a more economical, subtle, intelligent fashion.

 

Or perhaps its nothing of the sort and its just the new players that weren't here under Poch that need to be taught how to press with the others?

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paulwantsapint

paulwantsapint

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RK has got the enthusiasm of Alan Ball & Nigel Adkins, the tactics that Hoddel supposedly had, the passion of Gordon Strachan & the football stature of Lawrie McMenamy

 

He must command so much respect on the training ground afterall he won the European Cup as Barcalonas star man

He also scored over 250 goals in his carear most strikers don't do that

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Bucks Saint

Bucks Saint

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This stuff about pressing is interesting to me. Is Koeman suggesting that the players didn't know how to press properly? That Poch had introduced pressing, but perhaps in quite a one-dimensional way that would tire our players out, and now Koeman is trying to re-teach them in a more economical, subtle, intelligent fashion.

 

Or perhaps its nothing of the sort and its just the new players that weren't here under Poch that need to be taught how to press with the others?

 

I vote that RK thinks the former bloke had them pressing almost constantly, legs permitting, and so it was pretty one dimensional. Yes it is very early days, but the more selective approach, knowing when to press urgently, when to concede space, when to press more generally (say, as a midfield unit) seems to be the answer now and its fascinating to watch.

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