Every word Calum McFarlane said on Chelsea injuries, mentality issue and trip to Liverpool

Every word Chelsea interim head coach Calum McFarlane just said on this weekend’s trip to Liverpool, the latest injury news and the Blues’ woeful Premier League form

Chelsea interim head coach Calum McFarlane has just completed his pre-Liverpool press conference ahead of this weekend’s trip to Anfield.

The Blues are looking to put an end to their woeful form in the Premier League, but will have to beat the Reds on their own turf. McFarlane has just previewed his side’s next match, a little under 48 hours until kick-off on Merseyside.

Here is every word the interim head coach had to say:

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Injury news?

We’ve got a few lads returning, so Levi’s trained another full week again, Reece (James) as well, so yeah, looking promising.

And a big boost having those two back, how close are both of them to start do you feel?

Yeah, we’ve still got another session, they both trained fully today, so we’re hopeful, we’re hopeful.

And how’s Jesse Derry after that nasty knock?

Yeah, I spoke to Jesse’s dad the night it happened, I spoke to the family yesterday as well, and it’s positive, it’s really positive. I don’t have the knowledge or the insights to go into massive detail, but all early signs are really positive.

How do you explain the Forest performance?

Yeah, I completely understand the feelings, we are as disappointed and as frustrated as they are. I put it down to probably just not responding well enough to the early setbacks that we had. We need to be much better in those moments, it’s happened before, it’s something that we will address and try and improve for the upcoming games.

Some fans suggested that the players have downed tools, is that fair?

No, I wouldn’t agree with that. The performances haven’t been good enough, we’re in a really bad run at the moment. The Leeds performance was a glimmer where we thought we could build on that and we weren’t able to do that. But I do see these boys every day, every training session, every meeting, in the gym, they are in a good place to go and attack games, we just haven’t been able to translate that on the game on Monday, so hopefully we can improve that on Saturday.

And is the supporters unrest off the field, filtering through the atmosphere at the stadium, does that affect the players at all?

You can’t really focus on that, you’re playing in the Premier League against a really high level opposition, so your full focus needs to be on the match in the moment.

Jamie Carragher said the club is broken, how do you feel hearing those words?

It’s Jamie’s job, he’s a pundit, he’s got to give his opinion and I respect that, that’s his job and it’s what he’s there to do. I can only speak on my experience at this club and I think that there’s a lot of foundations for this team to have success. We’re not in the best form at the moment, we’re not performing the way we should be, but I do think there are foundations there for this team to be successful.

Is European football key for those foundations and how determined are you and the players to deliver it?

We’ve got four games left, we need to attack every game and show our level like we have done at times this year, not recently, and put ourselves in the best position to achieve that.

From a personal point of view, are you able to enjoy this period at all?

It’s a challenge, it’s tough, you don’t like losing games, no-one likes losing games at football, but I’m enjoying the challenge, I’m embracing the challenge, I’ve got a job to do and try and support the players and give them the best platform to win football games, it’s my job. If we win, I’ll enjoy it, if not, just like everyone else, I’ll be frustrated and angry.

Going back to the Forest game, you said that the first 15 minutes was unacceptable, how do you go about ensuring that doesn’t happen again?

Yeah, it’s down to all of us. I can be honest and open and we reviewed the game, we made some big mistakes in that first 15 minutes and Nottingham Forest punished us. You can’t do that at this level, you can’t do that against teams that are fighting for their lives to stay in the league. Especially the form we’re in, it hits us a little bit harder, the confidence isn’t there to go and bounce back, but regardless of that, at any level, you can’t make the mistakes that we did in the first 15 minutes and we reviewed the game and we’re going to do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Are Liverpool in a similar boat to Chelsea right now?

They’re a really good side, a lot of good players, there’s a lot of threats that we have to be aware of. We also have a lot of good players and we’re just focussing on ourselves at the moment and making sure that our performance levels are at a higher level than what they have been.

Is this an opportunity to build some momentum towards the FA Cup final?

We want to turn it around, we know that the standards that this club has set, we aren’t meeting them at this moment. The only thing we can control is how we behave and act every single day, how hard we work to turn that level of performance around.

How much is the squad thinking ahead to the final? Do the players fully focus on the challenge at hand in the league?

We haven’t spoken about the cup final, we’ve spoken about what we have to improve from the previous game and looking ahead to the next game, so we’re not looking that far ahead.

Not a case of the players are playing for places perhaps in a cup final?

They’re always playing for places, we’ve got a team full of internationals that we can call on, so there’s always competition for places at this level.

Is this form down to a mentality issue?

I think that you could look at it in many different ways. I think we definitely have to show a stronger mentality to recover after the early setback. 1-0 down, three minutes into the game, you can recover that situation, especially with the talent we have on the pitch. So, yeah, I would say we have to recover from those moments a lot better.

The fans are angry. Do the players owe something to the supporters?

Yeah, we know, the players know, I know, the staff know, everyone at the club knows that the recent performances have been nowhere near the expected standard and we’re going to do everything we can to improve that.

Have you sat down with the players and said that this is unacceptable, the situation and the way things are going at the moment?

My role as the coach is to review the game and explain the moments that have cost us or moments that we could have taken more advantage of. So, we’re looking at it more from a football perspective in some of the things that happened within that game that we can do a lot better and hopefully that shows on Saturday.

What’s the latest on Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho and Robert Sanchez?

Neto and Garnacho are carrying knocks, so it’s looking unlikely that they’re going to be available. Rob is also not going to be available after the injury that he sustained.

Pretty thin on the ground in attacking areas…

Yeah, we’ve still got a lot of good players, still got a lot of players available that can impact football games. So, we’re going to have to make up some of the players we’re missing in different ways, in the way that we shape the team up, but I probably don’t want to go into too much detail on that right now.

Have the group been reflecting on the Liverpool win earlier in the season and how they can perhaps bring back some of what they showed then?

Yeah, as a staff, you watch your opponents’ games, you always watch the previous game from the last time you played them to see how it looks, to see how it matches up, to see if there’s anything you can go after. So, we haven’t discussed it with the group per se, but we’ve watched a lot of Liverpool games.