About the Winning
"It
was a wonderful demonstration of the character and resilience in the team,
especially [after] how we played in the first half."
"Any
system you play in the game doesn't work unless you have that ability to work,
and we just weren't anywhere near it in the first half. But that resilience and
character kept us in the game."
"We
knew we were going to be better in the second half, we changed the structure of
the team a little bit and then I thought in the second half we really dominated
the game."
"You
can see whenever the team isn't quite pressing how we want then it becomes a
little bit broken, like it was in the first half."
"We
pressed the game and shortened the pitch much more in the second half. We got
the goal and had opportunities to get a few more."
"We
know that we have the capacity to win games. Our away record over the last two
years is really strong.
"You
see the resilience in the team and when we're not playing so well, we've still
got that organisation and resolve to keep a clean sheet.
"In
the second half we were much more fluent in our passing and movement. We played
the most part of the game in their half. We didn't have too many scares in the
second half.
"It's
a great victory, it's a difficult place to come here and we're very
happy."
About Strategy
"People
who know me and have watched my teams regularly from when I was a youth coach,
my teams have played 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 diamond."
"If
you look at Swansea tonight, they were a diamond and we were a box in midfield,
and they got between us quite well I felt because they've got good players and
they passed it well."
"We've
prepared that in training for if we have to flip and you see the difference it
can make. The players went smoothly into it."
"You
push the sides further up, so it's a 3-4-3 but in a different format. We pushed
Raheem [Sterling] higher up the pitch onto the full-back, [Alberto] Moreno went
right high and then the diamond occupies the spaces in midfield.
"They
play with two front players, but we still go three versus two at the back and
then that allows us to have the extra numbers. It worked well for us."
About 13 games unbeaten in the division since mid-December.
"I'm
proud whichever way [we win],"
"We
work very hard first and foremost on how we defend.
"It's
not just about the style, you have to have a foundation and the foundation for
that is how we press the game."
About Steven Gerrard As Substitution
"What
we did in the second half was run more without the ball, that notion for the
team that you've got to move not just when you have the ball, you've got to run
off it.
"We
talked at half-time about penetrating and options for the guy in possession.
Steven came on and offered that calmness.
"We
switched to the diamond in the second half. He came in and fitted into the
bottom of that. His calmness and control was very important in that."
"You
have to pay respect to the team."
"They've
been playing very, very well and getting results. Collectively over the last
three months we've been in great form."
"But,
of course, Steven has been out for a considerable period of time. He's fit
[now] and you saw him in the game today how important he is when he came
on."
About the Competition
"We
can now really look forward to that. Tonight, whatever, we needed a result - so
to get the victory was a huge result for us."
"At
home, we look forward to going into this game - they're massive games, great
games to be involved in."
"Hopefully,
it'll show the strides we've made since we played them a number of months back.
For that, I have to give immense credit to the team."
"We've
put ourselves in a great position. There is still a lot of work to go so we'll
recover now and get ready for the weekend."
"[The
target is] to finish as high as we can. Everyone talks about fourth but it's
the same every year for me. We do the best we can do."
"Manchester
City's result at the weekend gives us an opportunity to finish second, so our
mentality, the run and confidence we have at the moment we're just going to
take that into every game and see where it takes us."
"We've
clawed our way slowly back into it. We knew it was going to take time being so
many points behind, but to get back to this level of consistency is very, very
impressive."
"We've
still got a lot of work to do, but we're on the right pathway."
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