Head Coach Adrian Heath
On how he characterizes the disappointment in the 4-0 loss to Kansas City…
“Immensely disappointed but if you concede the type of goals we conceded tonight, make the mistakes that we made this evening, at a place like this, then you’re going to get punished. It was a comedy of errors, at time, at the back. Decision making was poor, with and without the ball. The one thing that we said before the game, you come here, you have to take them opportunities that come your way, and we did have some opportunities but we didn’t take them. But you give yourself a mountain to climb when you concede the goals that we did against a team that is really good in possession. I’m afraid it was a really poor night for quite a lot of our players.”
On if this is a low point in the season…
“Just said to the players, we came here about four years ago [2018], got beat four-nil [one]. The disappointment is more now because I didn’t think that team of four years ago was capable of winning it. This team, as it proved last year, is. And I know we were without some big players for us tonight but that’s not acceptable, that’s not a good enough performance this evening. Little bit of food for thought in terms of where we move on to down the road.”
On the problem for DJ Taylor on the left side defending against Kansas City…
“Well we did but sometimes when you have that type of first half performance, they deserve to try and get themselves out of it. It became quite apparent that we needed to make one or two changes. One or two of the guys that came on, I thought did well. I was really pleased for Joseph Rosales, thought he showed a lot of promise of what he might become. But on the evening, there was not a lot of positives other than maybe Josephs Rosales getting on the field and Robin Lod getting some minutes. Apart from that, not a lot.”
On the missed chances in the first five minutes…
“Well how many times do we talk about it? We had two great chances. Game changes. Better belief in the group, better belief in what we’re trying to do. They have to extend, they have to push, leave themselves more vulnerable. But when I look back, we’ve had probably four really good chances this evening. Don’t think the keeper [Tim Melia] made a save. Disappointing.”
On if he thought the team would get to the low point of the year in this game…
“No, not with this group of players because this group of players, as they proved in Seattle at the weekend. If anybody didn’t think that we were the equal of Seattle at the weekend, they probably don’t know anything about football. Thought second half we were excellent. So, no, I didn’t expect this type of performance. But at the end of the day, if you make the errors that we did, and as I said, it was a comedy of errors at the back. Poor decision making with the ball. Poor decision making without the ball. When to go tight, when to drop off, when to clear your lines, when to put your foot through it, when to compose yourself and play. I don’t think we could have made any more wrong choices than we did in the first half.”
On Tyler Miller’s performance tonight…
“One of the things that we’ve said is that Tyler [Miller] has been incredibly consistent for us. I don’t think tonight was one of his great games and he’ll be the first to hold his hand up to that. People know, players know when they’ve had a good one and when it’s not gone so well. Obviously, the penalty sort of killed the game off really as when the contest gets to three here, you don’t give yourself much of a chance. Tyler was one of a few players at the back tonight who I didn’t think had the best game that we’ve had this season. When you look at our run, was it, two in 17 that we had lost, that was down to the defensive shape, the performances of the defenders individually and collectively. And tonight was not a good one.”
On Joseph Rosales’s debut tonight…
“I was really pleased with him. Really good understanding of the role. Knew when to support. Knew when to play. Knew when to relax. Got tight, pinched the ball in a few occasions. I thought he was one of the little bright spots, bright moments of the evening.”
On the injury list ahead of Saturday’s match…
“Obviously we hope that Robin [Lod] has no reaction and comes through because I think he made a difference when he came on and got a hold of the ball. Within two minutes he’s had a flash wide. His general back-to-goal play and bringing people in to the game was there for all to see. [Fanendo] Adi will be better for starting a game. We think [Emanuel Reynoso] will be available for the weekend. And we’ll go from there. We’ll regroup and hopefully, we haven’t gotten any more injuries. We’ve got the likes of Chase [Gasper] and Ozzie [Alonso] and a few others coming back.”
On how close Emanuel Reynoso was to playing tonight…
“He just didn’t feel comfortable this morning and we think an extra two or three days back at home, getting treatments and working there would have been better than putting him in the thrust of the game, which we knew would be likely.”
