Head coach Markus Babbel spoke to the media following last night’s historic return to Wanderland.
Head coach Markus Babbel spoke to the media following last night’s historic return to Wanderland.
On the team’s overall performance…
“It was a fantastic test for us and a great experience for the boys. I saw many good things from us, of course, Leeds are a good side. I think they will definitely finish in the first five teams in the Championship. The first 30 minutes, they had one chance and scored. We had two chances and couldn’t score. Then we were a bit tired because the pace was quite high, Leeds are a good side as they let you run, then we were in a bit of trouble and then had a bit of luck. After half-time we had a good reaction and good score, the most important thing for me was what I said before: that we don’t want to park our team in the box. So we tried to play and tried to create chances, of course against a team like that you can’t create 100 chances. But also in the second half, we had two-three chances and it was a great experience for the boys.”
On the occasion of the match and the atmosphere…
“What I said to the boys before the match, so many people have worked hard to make this happen and we have to give something back on the pitch because this is an amazing story about what has happened here. Only seven years ago they started and now we have a stadium like this, we have a training ground now in European style and top facilities. Now it is up to us to bring our performance on the pitch. But it makes it so much easier for us to work in training with the boys, there’s much more enjoyment there you can see it on the players, and also now with the stadium and the crowds are back. This is fantastic. Well done to all the guys who make this happen.”
On what caught his eye…
“There was lots of good stuff there. Keanu (Baccus) what a pass, if Messi was doing this then people would talk 14 days about this. So a fantastic ball. But also Mitch (Duke), how hard he was working against these top defenders, always trying to hold the ball so we can breathe again. Daniel Wilmering on the left-side is only 18 year’s old but he was playing fantastic. It was a great team performance. Of course, we did mistakes but we were there for each other, that’s why we had luck on our side. This game is gold for us, from the pace, from the mentality and how played is gold for us.”
On the new tactical system…
“We started like this because these are the players we have at the moment and it looked good. We tried it in the games we played in the pre-season. Last season, we conceded too many goals so we have to think about something different but also now we can play a different system as well. This is what we want, that we can always react and it doesn’t matter who comes, we can play our style of football.”
On the leaders in the team…
“(Duke) he’s one of these guys but I have to also learn about the new players. Dylan (McGowan) is the type of person I can think about that he could be a captain. Pirmin Schwegler with the experience that he has. But Mitch Also, he’s a really positive type of person and he is one of the candidates.”
