'We're actually coaching each other now'

It has been a tough start to life as our interim head coach for Freddie Ljungberg - but he is seeing clear signs of improvement from his side.

In the space of a week, we have come from behind to beat West Ham and draw at Standard Liege - and the Swede is pleased with what he has seen.

 

"I'm happy you saw [the players telling each other what to do in Liege]!" he said. "I actually had a little review today and I showed just that. We're actually coaching each other now and you do communicate.

 

"For me then, at least, the principles of how you want to play is becoming more clear and it's a lot easier then to play football.

 

"I try to look at - not quick fixes - but the things that are urgent that I see in a game so I know we need to get that right and try to prioritise 10 to 15 things we want to get better at.

 

"But we can’t do that all in one go when we have no training sessions. So maybe try to build video sessions on that, trying to show the players small details that we need to fix and I feel that we are developing our gameplan.

 

"Of course that doesn’t go that quick, it has only been 10 days, two weeks. But I feel there are certain things that are much, much better in the games and that I feel really good about.

 

"I'm happy. The players are smiling at least and that's important. Of course people that play are smiling more than players that don't, but in general terms I've always believed in that. Of course you need to be professional and all of that, but they're still human beings and they need to be happy.

 

"When I played, when I was smiling I played much better. I believe in that but then as well of course there needs to be structure in how you can express yourself. Happy players play better I think."