On Jean-Philippe Mateta's knee issue: "He is coping really well. We have a great medical department. There is no risk at all - we would never take any risk."
On his players' response to their crowded schedule: "Mixed feelings to be honest. Of course, it was maybe the worst performance of this season against Leeds. Maybe we have to accept it, with all the games. This can happen."
On the role of the Christmas break: "It's important for everyone. We always try to find these days. Sometimes it's not so easy. Everybody visits family. Spending time with them, you start thinking about different things and that's important. There are different topics to talk about. Hopefully everybody is not talking too much about football - I hope the same [for myself] when I go home!"
On Sunday's opponents: "It's a great team, a very good manager there. To win against them we have to show a great performance. Like every single Premier League game, it'll be a nice challenge for us."
On how he would advise a coach about managing fixture congestion: "Do it differently than we did. Since 22 November, we played every third game with no training sessions - it made it difficult. It's not the perfect situation. But there is no other solution. You just play and rest and prepare on the screen. When we meet on the 26th, it's not possible to do a high intensity session. Resting, resting, resting. The best thing is to win a game, and then you get confidence."