Excerpts from Ronald Koeman's comments to the media after the win over Swansea City at St Mary's on Saturday.
Ronald Koeman spoke to the media after the victory over the Swans, here is what he said.
On The Start To The Season.
"The expectations are different. The people expect much more from the team than they expect from the beginning of last season. That’s normal.
Sometimes we are maybe a little bit struggling against that expectation with some new players, but with some players from last year they have to know and demand — players like Graziano, José, Victor and Davis — they are the kind of players who know.
Sometimes maybe they are too difficult with themselves and that’s one of the problems."
"We have a difficult start. It was all about winning the game. That’s maybe more pressure for the team last year, because that expectation was not like last season.
That’s a difference for the players and we need time for that."
On The Swansea Game.
Of course, because I think we can play better. We can have more domination in the game after the 3-0 up and not defending the result.
I think we have to do it better. We lost against Man United about mistakes and of course Man United is different than Swansea. Swansea don’t punish you, but Man United did last week.
That’s my job. Of course, first of all I am very happy with the result but that’s football. We have to learn, we have to improve. If you don’t be critical after the game I think they don’t learn."
On This Weeks Goal Feast
That’s very good. One of the critics sometimes was that we had to create too much to score goals. Last Wednesday, okay, that was against a Championship team, but with all the respect we scored six goals.
Today, maybe four or five chances we scored three goals and that’s being very clinical. That’s one side, but the other side I think we have to improve.
On Virgil van Dijk…
It was a good header, he’s defensively strong and he has good free-kicks, a good shot in the box. His personality is important for the team.
He’s only 24 years, it’s his first season in the Premier League and he will improve, he will learn and he can be better.
Sensible words from Ronald Koeman showing that he is confident in what the team will now go on and achieve but he is not going to let the team get complacent.
The good thing about the Dutchman is that in his comments to the media he is not only open and honest but he keeps things direct and sensible, unlike other Premier managers he does not seem to have an ego or seem to feel the need to score points against other managers. Unlike Mourinho at Chelsea who always seems so insecure and therefore always seeks confrontation so that he can flex his muscles, Koeman is calm and confident in the way he does business and that has to bode well in a dressing room.