Wilfried Nancy faced the mainstream media ahead of the Glasgow Derby tomorrow. The Celtic Star was scheduled to attend today but as the fan media ‘review’ has yet to be concluded – or even started – the door was well and truly closed on ourselves. No bad thing perhaps. Here’s everything that was said…
Q: How much are you looking forward to your very first Rangers game as Celtic manager?
Wilfried Nancy: “I’m really excited. You know, I’ve been watching this kind of game for many years, and now to be part of the game, this game, this is amazing. I’m really excited by that.
Q: With everything that’s been going on with your future and all the pressure, as well as the league position, does this feel like the biggest game of your managerial career so far?
Wilfried Nancy: “No. The next game is always the biggest game, because this is always the time, the next game that I have to prepare. So now I know that this is a rivalry. I know what it means, this kind of game, because like I said, I’ve been following this kind of game for many years. But I’m really excited by that.”
Q: How do you reflect on the defeat last time out, and what did you learn about your side that you can take into this match?
Wilfried Nancy: “The last game was a different game. And like I said, it was a mid-game during the week, so it was a bit difficult for us, regarding all the reasons that I told you. I’ve learned every time that we have a game. Every time that we have a game, we discuss about what we can learn from that. I think that it was not our best game with the ball, the last game. That’s why we had the feeling that we were defending a lot, because when we won the ball, we didn’t take care of the ball. We had a lot of trouble with that. That’s why for me, I will not change regarding that.
“The ball is so important for us. We need to take care of the ball. We need to recognise when we have to attack the opposition, when this is a good moment. It doesn’t change in terms of the way I want to see my team play. Now it’s a different game tomorrow, regarding the fact that this is a rivalry. Now it’s got to be about emotion, to play with emotion, but also to balance the emotion. For me, this is the key point for tomorrow.”
Q: You have had a lot of criticism about your system. I know it’s uncomfortable even asking you about it, because it’s just everywhere you look, somebody’s having a go and saying this system is just not going to work. Do you think about changing it?
Wilfried Nancy: “So I think about changing something every time. But again, I do also my job, regarding analysing what we can do, and have a look at all the goals that we conceded, and you’re going to tell me if this is about the system. So I did it, and no, it’s not the case. So because we conceded a lot of goals on set-pieces, the only moment when we had an issue with the system, and this is something normal, is when we played against Roma, the second goal.
“But after that, it was not about the system, because we had players, all the other goals that we conceded, we had many players inside the box, and sometimes it was a ping-pong game, like I said, transition. Sometimes we had to go score a goal, and we got caught in the transition.
“Offensively, we had a really good moment also. Like I said, we watched with the players all the chances that we had in the beginning of the season. And I know that you know, it could have been different in terms of wins. But again, I’m not a guy with a should have, could have, but this is a fact that at this moment, in terms of results, this is not what we want. But at the same time, I see a lot of things that I really like, and this is the direction that I like to take.
“And after that, the system… I want you to understand that I don’t play with a back five. So this is useless to talk about this. I don’t play with a back five. The way we defend, most of the time, this is a back-four. Or it could be a back three. So after that, like every team, I repeat myself, when there is a situation, when there are many players in front of our backline, so we have to get more players. And when you play with a back-four, sometimes you can have a back-five or back-six.
“For me, this is useless to talk about that. What I want is to be good with the concept. And this is, for me, the most important. I never said that I am a back-five guy. I never said that. I play with a back-four, I play with a back-three, I play with a back-two. For the moment, again, this is only the beginning. I want to see certain things with that, and after that, I will analyse.”
