Key quotes from Erik’s pre-Fulham press conference

The boss sat down with journalists in the Jimmy Murphy Centre at our Carrington training ground earlier this (Thursday) afternoon, to preview the new top-flight term’s opening fixture, just over 24 hours in advance of the first kick.

Naturally, the availability of new signings Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, following their transfers from Bayern Munich earlier this week, was a primary topic at the media briefing, in which Erik also spoke about Luke Shaw’s recent setback and season ambitions.

Below, you can find a rundown of the key quotes from part one, before the second half of the press conference is released at 22:30 BST this evening…

SQUAD AVAILABILITY FOR FRIDAY

“The issues are there. But it’s not about the players who are not available. Like I said last season, it’s about the players who are available and we have a good group, we can make a strong selection, we can put out a strong team, so we will do. [De Ligt, Maguire and Mazraoui] will be in the squad.”

SHAW WILL RETURN SOON

“I think he will return in the short term, it doesn’t take long. We are looking forward [to that] of course, Luke Shaw is a very important player for our team. He is massively important so we want to get him back as soon as possible but we can’t force this process.”

WHY WE TARGETED MAZRAOUI

“I think he is a player who is quite difficult to put under pressure. I think especially in English football, that can be very beneficial. There is always pressure on the ball and this is a player who one of his key attributes is that it’s very difficult to put him under pressure because he finds often solutions.”

COULD HE COVER AT LEFT-BACK?

“We can sort problems on the left side with, for instance, Licha Martinez, with Diogo Dalot, he is capable of playing there. With Mazraoui, we have an additional one who can fill in that position as long as Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are not available.”

WE’LL BUILD INTO THE SEASON

“We are complete and we are now working together for, let’s say, 10 days and always that will take a while. But more teams will have this problem. In the start of the season, don’t drop points, work hard, make sure you are well organised in and out of possession – that gives you the best chance. But we will not [be] 100 per cent, 100 per cent form. But we have to go from game to game to improve, to get higher performance levels in the team and individual players, and we will see how quick we can go into this process.”

FEELING BEFORE SEASON THREE

“Not so different but we know our targets, we know we are in the right direction, we know we have won two trophies and we know our game model. So, now we have to integrate the new players where we think they can improve the game model, improve the team levels and we take it from there. I always have very high expectations but we want to go for trophies.”