Advocaat on... West Ham United

  • by Staff Writer
  • Sunday, 22nd March 2015

New Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat was perhaps justified in feeling his new team were a little hard done by at the Boleyn yesterday afternoon. Hear what he had to say about the game in his post-match press conference...

Dick: You said on TV that you'd seen enough positives there to have hope?

You must always have hope - otherwise you're lost. It gives me confidence, the way we worked today against a team we know are difficult to play against with the long ball. They don't play through the midfield, they play with long balls and then support. It's difficult to play against but we did really well.

We didn't give a lot of chances away and we had the first chance in the first half with Defoe. If we score with that chance then they have to take even more risks and leave more space. I didn't expect a goal from West Ham because everything was under control; unfortunately, luck was not on our side.

It looked like a foul in the build-up to the goal.

I didn't see a foul in the build-up?

A foul on the Sunderland player.

The jump?

Yes.

Everybody saw it except the referee, but I will not complain about it.

How frustrating is it, because you thought you' done enough to get that first point?

Well we deserved a first point, they way we worked and the way we stood. Technically the players did everything they had to do. Again, the way they played when they took Nolan off with power, pressing, I was quite pleased with that - and then suddenly in the last minute they get a moment in front of our goal. A one-two and then it was open.

Do you worry about player's mentality when they concede a late goal? You've got the international break coming up as well, the effect that could have?

No; the good thing is that we don't have so many international players! [laughs] So they will come back ready.

You mentioned that you weren't happy about the way that your full-backs played and you'd have to work on that but basically you're stuck with them, aren't you? There aren't any others beside Billy Jones.

Besides that, you cannot change so many things in three days, give them confidence [maybe]. I took the risk with Wickham in that position but he played brilliant, so that's a really positive thing. Some players have to improve technically with what they do when we have the ball. Those kinds of things I'll take to the training ground.

Do you think you deserved to win the match?

No, that was too much; I think one point for us was enough, but three points was too many.

Does it give you the confidence to believe you'll win your fight to stay up?

Yeah, I'm always confident we'll stay up as I said. Two players have come back; Johnson is a great player for us and Lee Cattermole is a good player, a steady player. I was quite pleased about the way I saw we can play today but now I have the time to try something. When I arrived on Tuesday there was not so much time to try and find out. Now I've seen enough.

Were you impressed with Adam Johnson's mentality?

He came in on Wednesday and I spoke with him. Life goes on and he did well, he's a very good player. I was happy that I could bring him in and it's good to know he'll be available for the game against Newcastle.

That is a huge, huge game for the North East.

For me as well! I made a mistake when I first went to Rangers and the first game was Celtic v Rangers. They said it was a huge game and I said we have 24 huge games. Then I understood how important it is there, afterwards!

Did you win?

We lost 5-1... [laughs]

But then I said after the game: "Believe me, we will not lose any more games" - and we became champions, 18 points ahead of Celtic. So I'd still like to win at Newcastle!

Thank you.

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