00:00 What are your thoughts on the game against Chelsea?
00:26 I don't know how clear my explanation is going to be but I've now had a chance to look at
00:40 it. I think it's a penalty kick and I'll give you my reasons for it because I don't want
00:45 you to think that it's in any way me just having a biased thought. I think nowadays
00:51 if you had two hands above your head now I think they would be in an unnatural position
00:56 and if you think the reason for his hands being there was because it was a free kick,
00:59 well if it was a free kick the referee never restarted the game with a free kick. If it
01:04 was because the player kicked it onto his own arms then technically he made a really
01:09 poor clearance then which kicked it onto his arm. So for all those three points I can't
01:13 see why the referee didn't choose to give a penalty kick. On the other side of that
01:18 I would say if it was given against me I would think it was very harsh because of that but
01:22 I would have to say the minute my arms are above my head I'm having to say that in, I
01:28 don't know what they do in the Bundesliga but I watched the games last week and I think
01:31 Freiburg get a penalty kick from a handball at Augsburg, would I be right in saying that
01:36 maybe? And also UEFA I think nearly all the referees give handball, if anything hits your
01:44 arm, whether you believe it's right or wrong they tend to give penalty kicks.
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03:03 David, in terms of before the incident with the penalty and you look quite frustrated at times with the way your team were looking after the ball and especially in the first half the speed they were playing at when they did get on it, how disappointing is that?
03:16 I was disappointed with our first half performance, I thought we improved in the second half, we had three or four chances, we didn't have our shooting boots on tonight, Jared had one good chance at the back post in the first half but apart from that we didn't play well in the first half.
03:32 I have to praise Freiburg, I thought Freiburg started the game very brightly, right from the moment we kicked off and they nearly earned a counter kick from it, or they did. I thought the give away for the goal was terrible from our point of view, it was too easy, gave away a ball on midfield, which was a turnover but we turned the ball over a lot tonight and a lot of our top players and good players gave the ball away far too much.
03:58 We need them to perform well to get the results and they didn't quite do that.
04:06 David, how frustrated are you after this performance, especially in the first half, which was a rather weak performance, are you disappointed?
04:16 I'm disappointed, especially in the first half, in the second half we got better, we had three or four good chances but overall I'd say our top scorers didn't have enough of the goal water, it just didn't work.
04:34 I have to praise Freiburg, they started the game very bravely and they caused us problems, but the goal we conceded was too easy, the ball loss in midfield was too easy, overall some of our top players lost too many games.
04:58 David, is the positive that you've done this before in this competition, lost 1-0, gone back to London Stadium and gone through?
05:06 It's not a terrible performance because this is what two-legged European ties are over many, many years, so we have to turn it around in the second leg, we'll do everything we can to possibly do that.
05:24 We've won a narrow game here against Freiburg 2-1, it was very close that game, I thought in the main tonight it was very close, so we've got to try and turn it around now and we'll know what we'll have to do and hopefully we'll get a good atmosphere and the crowd behind us to back us.
05:51 David, the positive that you've done this before in this competition, lost 1-0, gone through?
05:59 It's not a terrible performance because this is what two-legged European ties are over many, many years, so we've got to turn it around in the second leg, we've won a narrow game here against Freiburg 2-1, it was very close that game, I thought in the main tonight it was very close, so we've got to turn it around now and hopefully we'll get a good atmosphere and the crowd behind us to back us.
06:26 David, you've touched on coming back from 1-0 against Sevilla, that was one of the very big nights in the history of West Ham being a London stadium and likewise 1-0 for Freiburg is a difficult position for them to go into London with, do they defend it or do they come out and try and increase their lead? So there is a bit of an advantage for you from that point of view, isn't there?
06:54 Well I can't speak for Freiburg, I can only speak for us. It was always going to be a tight tie, I don't think tonight somebody was going to have the tie tied up, I think it was always going to be close one way or the other. If we had won 1-0 tonight we'd be saying 'hey, this game's tight' and they could come here, so it doesn't really matter, the game's still close, we know there's a second leg to play, we hope that the home advantage can help us.
07:23 We hope that our crowd can get right behind us and you talked about Sevilla there, that night was probably one of the best nights we've had in the stadium, so let's hope that we can build another night up to that next Thursday.
07:37 David, you've picked up a 0-1 win against Sevilla in the London Stadium, and on the other hand it's not so easy for Freiburg with a 1-0 win, they have to decide whether they defend that 1-0 win in London or play more open, is that an advantage for them?
07:59 I can't speak for Freiburg, only for us, but it was a very tight game, and if it had gone the other way around, we'd be sitting here saying 'wow, what a great game, how tight it was'.
08:15 It doesn't matter, it's in the past, I just hope that we can bring another performance with our home advantage, as they've already said, and as we've done against Sevilla.
08:26 You gave a very logical explanation why you thought it was a penalty, but you said if it had been given against you, you would have felt it was harsh, is that just because of the nature of the rules?
08:38 I think just the nature of the rules, and the nature of it is, but I think the minute your arms are above your head, or we know nowadays you're not allowed to know if you put them out, and it can be really harsh, we see it so often in football at the moment.
08:51 That's why I use the word 'harsh', I hope the Germans understand my word. But when your hands are above your head, you're putting yourself at risk, and if you do that, and it hits your arm, then I think most people would have probably said 'this is a good chance I'm going to get a penalty kick'.
09:12 You've already mentioned the penalty, the penalty kick, and that's just the way the rules are, can you say a few more words about that?
09:25 Yes, as I said, the rules are sometimes very unclear, but one thing is clear, if your hands are above your head, then it's a penalty. The decision was very harsh, as I said before, if it had been for us, if it had been the other way around, I would have said it was a very harsh decision.
09:44 But one thing is also clear, if a player has both hands above his head, then he's putting himself at risk, and most people who saw that would have probably given a penalty.
09:54 David, you had to take off Emerson due to injury, how is he?
09:59 Okay, I just felt his groin, and I've not had a chance to speak about it, but they were telling me it was his groin he was feeling, so I'll need to see how he is.
10:08 Which player?
10:10 Emerson.
10:22 Okay, guys, thank you.
10:24 The English media just want to come outside and we'll just do a couple of minutes.
