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  • 02/10/2023
Burnley's Vincent Kompany on their rearranged Premier League clash with Luton and the need for a win
Transcript
00:00 Fantastic. Morning, Vincent. How are you doing?
00:02 Yeah, very good.
00:03 Good, good. The game so far against the so-called bigger teams in the Premier League, you come
00:08 against Luton this on Tuesday. Will that give you a clearer identification of where your
00:15 team is at and the level they're at at the moment?
00:18 I think the international break will be a good moment to assess and look back. I think
00:22 for now we just look forward and we're thinking, OK, in every game we've played so far, we've
00:27 done everything we could to win the game and we'll try and do the same on Tuesday.
00:32 And this game was postponed from earlier in the season to give Luton time to prepare the
00:36 ground but does that benefit you because obviously performances have improved and you're more
00:42 solid defensively?
00:43 Do you know what? I think it's actually benefited both teams. I look at Luton in the first three
00:50 or four games and I look at Luton now, they've definitely improved. I look at ourselves and
00:55 it's the same for us. So I think it's benefited both teams in that sense. But in the end,
01:02 I think last year were two tough games and I would expect this to be again a tough game.
01:08 As I said, you're solid defensively but you're in desperate need of goals. Is Lyle Foster's
01:12 return important for you this week?
01:15 Yeah, look, it's massive. I think Zeki, to be honest, and Jey Rodriguez have done well
01:19 with the time that they've had up top. In every game we've had at least two or three
01:26 big chances and at the moment it's not lacking goals for a lack of creating chances at the
01:33 moment. We just don't put them away. And OK, you have to believe that if your performances
01:37 are good and that you keep creating chances, obviously we can create more but we play against
01:42 top sides, it's always difficult. But then you have to believe you're still on the right
01:46 track to get results.
01:48 I'm sure you'd have seen from the weekend the controversy around VAR. From your point
01:53 of view, do you still have trust in officials making the right decision and taking as long
01:57 as they need to to make the right decisions in terms of VAR specifically?
02:02 Yeah, look, I think we've gone down a road now where this is it, we've just got to make
02:08 this as best as we can. It's tough because we've also had the same situation with VAR
02:23 this season and when you're on the wrong end of it, it really hurts. But in the end I still
02:29 think that the approach of being open about these things, I mean, I want to maybe discuss
02:37 the other side of it which is that every single time in this country you get an extensive
02:43 report as to why they made a decision. People are very open with it, people are admitting
02:47 to mistakes and apologising for it and as much as you have no understanding when it
02:52 happens to you, I still think that it's the right way to go about it. So for that reason,
02:58 from my side, I prefer to talk about us making it the best we can and getting it right, understanding
03:08 what we need for football rather than point out individuals and make it about them. I
03:15 think they're doing the best they can but obviously we make mistakes.
03:20 How do you feel your team is progressing to this point?
03:27 It's definitely, we're six games in right? It just feels like in the Championship we'd
03:36 be about 12 games in by now. But the point is more like, if you look at the first half
03:45 of these games and the last half of these games plus the cup games we've had in between,
03:51 I think we've had some good team performances and now it's about results of course. But
03:57 always with the idea that performances bring results and I hope that we can actually materialise
04:04 that very quickly.
04:05 How do you reflect on the difficulty of the fixtures? You've faced five of the top eight
04:10 from last season in the Premier League already. How much of a learning curve does that provide
04:16 your players? Could that actually be a benefit in time because you've learnt the level that
04:19 you guys need to be at?
04:21 Yeah, look it's not going to be easy for any of the promoted teams and us included. So
04:27 every single game we're pushed to our limits, opportunities not taken and mistakes made
04:33 get punished. But with playing those games you do feel like there's something in there
04:41 for us and we've just got to keep believing, focus on making sure that we start every game
04:49 with the feeling that we can have a result and be no different on Tuesday.
04:54 Can you take anything from the games against Luton last season? I know obviously different
04:58 teams with new players in a way but what can you take from the win that you had there for
05:02 instance last year?
05:04 Yeah, look we played them twice, granted on the two different managers but it's a really
05:12 well put together squad. I really have a lot of respect for how they've approached it at
05:21 Luton over the years, how they've actually built the squad and there's a lot of coherence
05:27 in how they've built the squad. The players that they've got, they can do exactly what
05:32 the manager wants them to do and then as well what the manager achieved with them last year
05:36 after getting sacked by the way from Watford during the season, getting them promoted is
05:43 a tremendous achievement. For us managers you can lift the trophies and that's a way
05:50 of success but I think the best way of success is just overachieving and Luton is overachieving
05:55 on every aspect and that shows that they've got good people and good processes in place.
06:01 After they got their first win of the season against Everton, what difference would it
06:05 make to you and your team and the work that you're doing to get that first victory in
06:08 the Premier League?
06:09 Yeah, look we're going to keep fighting for every single game and look it will come and
06:18 we've not been far off having results. We just mentioned the VAR, we had a little bit
06:25 of a forest game that could have gone our way. We had the performance against United,
06:32 Newcastle as tough as you get but we've been in games so for us keep doing that and we'll
06:38 have our results and then we'll be like everyone else down there, not easy but eventually we'll
06:46 get results as well.
06:47 How would you deal with the expectation going into this game as well because like we said
06:51 some of the games so far have been extremely difficult but you're facing an opponent this
06:55 time, another promoted side where there is a bit more of an expectation for you to go
06:59 and get the result. Could that be different for your team? How do you see that settling
07:04 in your side?
07:05 No, we have that expectation for ourselves for every game so that doesn't change and
07:10 we've been used to it last season. We felt that we had the expectations to win a lot
07:13 of games last season so it's not necessarily about that. It's approaching a game as you
07:23 have to, prepare well, get there and believe in the fact that you can score the goals and
07:29 you can defend when you need to defend. These games I don't think should be any different
07:36 in terms of mindset. I know the outside world will have a different view of the game but
07:40 for us in terms of mindset we have to approach every game the same way.
07:43 How's the squad looking?
07:45 Good, healthy. I haven't seen them this morning though so I hope I can see the same tomorrow.
07:51 Anyone back who's been out?
07:53 No, other than Lyle Foster. The guarantee I can give you is that Lyle Foster is available
08:02 again.
08:03 Thank you Vincent.
08:04 Morning Vincent. In terms of looting, you've obviously changed a number of players here.
08:20 How much do you feel looting has changed from the side you faced last season?
08:27 I think they've gone through, from what I can tell anyway, they've gone a little bit
08:38 through the same as us. Trying to find the right formula as quickly as they could. You
08:44 can see that they've actually settled on a squad, on a team at the moment with players
08:48 who already did a very good job for them last season. We're all having to deal with the
08:54 mix but in terms of what the manager does, what the team does, they look very close to
09:03 what made them good last season.
09:05 Having got that first win of the season on the weekend, are you expecting a slightly
09:09 different beast from maybe the one you've seen earlier in the season?
09:14 I don't know. All I know is that for us we're going there with every intention to do what
09:23 the game takes. For us it's a key game, like every game, but it's a key game. We really
09:31 focus on ourselves and our own mindset.
09:34 You've spoken in previous press conferences and so on about the growth of this young team
09:39 and the process you need to go through. How quickly do you need results to reinforce the
09:43 message you're giving to the players to show them that it's going to work?
09:47 The priority in everything we discuss is that the mindset is always winning. You don't just
09:54 turn it on or off, it's there all the time. That's our key focus, our key priority. My
10:00 only thing I'm sharing is that my experience of winning is not just about saying it, it's
10:05 habits, standards, consistency. Our performances have been good against tougher positions but
10:15 it has to stay like this and then you get results. Tomorrow will be something we'll
10:21 be trying to achieve massively of course.

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