On Darwin Nunez…

I can accept every miss, especially from a player that has scored two very important goals against Brentford, that’s scored for us in the home game against Villa. I would prefer him to score but the word ‘chance’ says it all – it’s a chance, so it’s not 100 per cent sure that the ball goes in. Players miss chances, that I can accept. But what was a bit harder for me to accept [was] his behaviour after that chance, and with behaviour I mean I think it got too much in his head where he wasn’t the usual Darwin that works his [backside] off and makes sure he helps the team.

I think he was too disappointed after missing that chance and maybe – we will never know, we will never find out – that’s why he was just a fraction short [in] the moment afterwards. I always truly believe that it’s always the best to have Wata [Wataru Endo]’s mindset and what I mean with that is that for the whole season he just keeps on going, keeps on going, keeps on going and whenever we need him, he’s ready. That is very difficult, there are not many players that can do this. It’s not about the chance for me, it’s more about the 20 minutes afterwards where I want to talk to him about than about him missing a chance.

On what he’s learning about his players at this stage of the season…

You always learn in every game but I see mostly the same things. So, these players are able to play every three days on the best of their capabilities in terms of physique. If you saw yesterday again, I mostly take Dom Szoboszlai as an example – what a work-rate for his third game in a row. Until the last, last second, he kept on running up and down, up and down, up and down. That’s the only thing I can ask for and what the fans can ask for. And that we are then unlucky not to score our chances, that’s football unfortunately.

But we cannot accept – not the fans, nor me – that they don’t give maximum effort. But that’s what they constantly do and I assume that they will do again. But you never know the outcome because we face – with Villa, with Everton away – difficult opponents. The fixture list for us now is a few difficult ones in a row – that’s what you have to accept. The good thing is that we are not behind someone, we are still number one and that’s the good thing if you go into a run of games like this.

On Ryan Gravenberch’s form...

I think that is partly what it is [that he can’t be nine out of 10 every game]. There are only a few players in the world that can be a nine or a 10 every single three days. If you look at his age, he might, might, might eventually belong to those group of players – those two or three or four that can do this. But he’s not there yet, which is completely normal and it depends also on the playing style of the opponent, which we just said. If you play Everton or Wolves, that is a completely different game than when you play Villa. I liked him yesterday much more than I liked him against Everton, for example. It’s not always as simple as the form of a player or how many games did he play, but nine or 10 times that’s the most easy reason to give instead [of] diving into looking at playing style and certain other things.