Press conference

'Xhaka's reaction was wrong in that moment'

Unai

Unai Emery was asked about Granit Xhaka's reaction to our supporters when he faced the media on Sunday.

Here's what our head coach said:

on the Xhaka incident...

He was wrong. He was wrong. Now we need to stay calm and speak with him, to speak inside about that reaction. His reaction was wrong in that moment. We are working, me and the club, inside with every player to manage playing under pressure. We need to be clever in our minds and create habits under pressure for our minds to be clearer. We can play with our hearts and can be hot in difficult moments, but our minds must be clever. We are going to speak about that, of course, because the reaction was wrong. We will speak with the players and the club about this reaction.

on whether he feels sorry for Xhaka...

We are here because we have supporters. We are the workers inside, but we play for them. We need to have a lot of respect from them, through applause and criticism.

on whether Xhaka will still be captain...

It's not the moment to speak about that. First, I want to speak with him and the club, and we want to stay calm before we speak about that. He was not right to do that.

on whether he has faced similar situations to Xhaka's...

I've had a lot of situations that are similar. It's the same that he's wrong. We need the supporters and when they criticise us we need to stand up. When they applaud us, we need to stay calm, because they are our supporters and they are the reason for our work. You are the same. We want to give them our opinion and your opinion, and because we have a lot of followers here and the world. We need our players to stay calm in all the moments, when weโ€™re applauded and when weโ€™re criticised.

on whether the connection with the fans is in trouble...

This evening, after each moment the connection with the team was amazing. After 2-2, the last 20 minutes the supporters were amazing at getting behind the players and pushing for victory. The connection this evening was very good. Then there was one small individual circumstance, but overall they support us.

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