Ruben, you allowed two goals last week against Brighton and have only managed one clean sheet so far. Is that a concern for you?
“Absolutely, it’s a concern, particularly when you observe the current league trends. The teams that are winning consistently aren’t conceding many goals, and often not even facing many shots on target. That’s crucial. With talented players, effective defending can lead to opportunities where you can score and emerge victorious. However, this is a team issue—we need to enhance our defensive efforts and become more aggressive. Energetic defending, where we fully engage with every play, improves our overall defense. Everything is interconnected, but there’s definitely a lot for us to work on. We can’t allow ourselves to concede the number of goals we have been, and that is an area where we need to improve.”
Given that it’s a collective effort, can you lower the number of goals conceded without affecting your scoring at the other end?
“Yes, it’s certainly possible to attack effectively. In fact, better defense often leads to better attacks. The way we defend our box is crucial; in our last match, we struggled a bit inside the box and allowed crosses without applying pressure outside of it. We’ve identified these minor details from the last game and have been focusing on them this week for improvement. We’ve faced challenges early in the season, and while we contained Arsenal fairly well, we still allowed them 17 shots in our latest match. That’s unacceptable. We need to change that, and we’re committed to making these defensive adjustments. We can maintain our attacking style and potentially score even more goals, but solidifying our defense is essential.”
