GoonerDNA

🚨 Oliver Glasner on his conversation with Eberechi Eze at full-time after Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal: “Eberechi is a player I know very well from our time at Crystal Palace. I know his quality and how dangerous he can be when given space, so before the game, I instructed Muñoz and McAtee to stay close to him and make life difficult for him. Thankfully, they followed the plan perfectly. Eze struggled to find his rhythm, and Arsenal eventually substituted him at half-time for Noni Madueke, who went on to score the decisive goal. After the game, I went over to speak to him. I told him, ‘Eberechi, I saw you struggling today. You couldn’t get into the game, and your manager had to take you off at half-time.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Coach, your players gave me absolutely no room! You must have told them something before the game.’ I laughed and replied, ‘Of course I did! Did you think I was going to let you come here and enjoy yourself? I know exactly what you’re capable of, so why would I make things easy for you?’ He smiled and said, ‘I knew something was going on. Every time I received the ball, somebody was already standing next to me!’ But I also told him something important. I said, ‘Listen, today you had a difficult game, but tomorrow you could be the player who wins Arsenal a match. Don’t allow one substitution to affect your confidence. Learn from today, work hard and give your manager no reason to take you off in your next game.’ I have great respect for Eze. He has the ability to create decisive moments, score goals and change matches with one piece of quality. One difficult afternoon doesn’t take that away from him. Today, we found a way to stop him. Next time, he might be the one punishing his opponents. That’s football, and I expect him to come back stronger.”