Grant on... Manchester United

  • by Staff Writer
  • Tuesday, 30th November 2010

A victorious Avram Grant reflects on an uplifting victory for everyone associated with the club...

Jonathan Spector certainly had a very good first half?

He's a good professional and he'll always try hard. That's why we changed his position in training to midfield. I think he saw the game yesterday - Barcelona and Madrid - and thought if they can do it... but he played very well today.

But he'll be expecting to play on Sunday, won't he, after that performance?

I always look for a performance like this. After the performances of Spector and Behrami in the last game, they've both performed well - it's a good problem for me.

The disallowed goal just seemed to spur the team on even more?

I think we started the game very well. The movement was good, the passing was good, the defence was good - everything was good and we started well. Then we continued after the goal to create more chances and half chances. We scored four, we could have scored more - but for me it's enough.

What will that performance do for the club? Not in your wildest dreams could you have imagined that?

It's very, very important because you only get points for good results. Except for the game against Liverpool and the second half against Newcastle our performances were good. We worked better than the other teams, every game we created lots of chances but we didn't score.

We didn't score and also conceded goals in most of the games so it was very important in the last few games to continue to do what we did before, but be more clinical in the box. And I think it was fantastic.

This cup run magic you seem to have - with Chelsea, Portsmouth and now West Ham - can you explain it?

I don't know! I can't explain it; a coincidence maybe, I don't know.

How much would it lift the club were you to get to Wembley?

I think, first of all, to be in a semi final is very good for this club. We are trying here to build something good, step by step - and we need the results to ensure that people are doing the right thing.

We've played many many good games without winning this season so the players maybe lost a bit of their confidence. You saw how many chances we missed against Blackpool then after this we put in a poor performance against Liverpool.

But the most important issue is that we showed mental strength. We continued to play how we did before but more efficiently. Today it was unbelievable.

Can you explain how you can beat Man Utd 4-0 in a Cup tie and still be bottom of the Premier League?

You don't get points for performances. If you take all the other performances, half of the[m contained] mistakes by the referees against us [without which] we would not be bottom of the league. But we are at the bottom.

It's good that it was five points and now it's three points and we have a lot of games left to play this season. It will not be easy but I'm sure that we can do it and I'm sure that we can build a good West Ham for the future - and that's important.

Would you swap a win tonight for a win on Sunday?

If the Premier League suggest it I will consider it...

[laughs]

What about Carlton Cole, Avram? He's come under fire in recent weeks but he responded in the best possible way.

Carlton Cole knows that the best way to do things is to speak on the pitch. He was brilliant today; from the first moment he worked very, very hard, caused them a lot of problems and also scored two goals. He knows how to do it; in the game he was hungry to show he can do better than he did before.

Every striker, every player has started to play better. We need to examine the [whole] season, then look back and say either he was good or he was not good - not after 15 games.

It was a big decision to leave Scott [Parker] out tonight and play Jonathan [Spector] in his place?

Yes, but after the performance by Scott on Saturday when he played [whilst] not 100 per cent fit we knew that he could play maybe 20 minutes [tonight] if we needed him. But the team performed well and I thought it was better for him not to play today. He will play on Sunday.

Does the number of changes you made act as extra motivation? Was that talked about before the game?

No. Man Utd always play with the same team in the Carling Cup. Last year they won the cup, this year because they have a good squad, a big squad I think that each player who played today, if you wanted to buy them would cost more than £10million.

So they have a very good team, a very good squad to win but we wanted to show our squad off and that we can beat any team at home, especially.

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