“I think there’s a couple of things in it. I think the last five games we played, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Brentford, Sunderland and Bournemouth, I think it’s been consistent, good competitive performance through the roof? No, but good competitive, consistent performances and that’s what you need in a long season. Those five games should have given us more than the five points we got, probably eight, nine, 10 points.
“And if you get that from those games, it’s different. So that’s what we’re focusing on. Can we produce performances like that last night? Overall, like the performance, it’s my job to deal with all the scrutiny. It’s no problem, I can face all the questions, I’ll take all the blame, I’ll take all that.
“Also, my job is to look through everything and look through the defeat last night. Of course, it was very emotional and tough to take for everyone, but I think it was in many ways good and we deserve more from that. So we just need to keep doing that, especially the last two games, it’s a minimum of four points we should have, if not more. So we just need to keep doing that. And the next thing is, it’s almost the perfect storm.
“In a storm, some are building fences and hiding behind it, others are building windmills and getting stronger and getting more energy and learning from it.”
“I think after Cuti became the captain he’s done a lot of good things right. I said it when I named him the captain that even though he’s an experienced player, he’s tried a lot, he’s still a young leader. And I think a lot of the things he’s done well on and off the pitch I’m happy with.
“I’m actually very happy with his performance last night, I think he was a true captain in many ways throughout the game. Speaking at half-time when we were 2-1 down, keep believing, keep doing the right things. But also when you’re a young leader sometimes you make a mistake, of course it’s good to keep it internally.
“Johan and I had a good conversation with him this morning about everything, which we of course keep internally.”