“I believe that it can be good for the team,” Wilfried Nancy

Wilfried Nancy spoke to the mainstream media at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon ahead of tonight’s Europa League encounter against Roma…

The Celtic Fan Media remains banned as the club creates a perfect storm for the new manager who has suffered a massive pile-on from the hacks with only the Celtic bloggers and podcasters offering support for Wilfried. Here is everything that was said at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon…

Q: Wilfried, how are you feeling about your first European game in charge of Celtic?

Wilfried Nancy: “I feel good. Obviously, the first game, two days to train the team, I think that what I saw was very interesting. We had really good moments with the ball, without the ball, and after that we could have been better, I would say. But I’m pleased, obviously not with the result, but I’m pleased with the way we played. I’m pleased also with the way each player wanted to connect, so it was interesting for the first game.”

Q: How challenging is it to get your ideas across when you have so many games, and so many different games as well, going from the Scottish Premiership to the Europa League?

Wilfried Nancy: “First of all, for me this is amazing, because as a coach my job is to find solutions, and after that it’s to prioritise. Obviously, I cannot show everything since I came here, but the idea is to prioritise, and also don’t forget that we have a good base already. My job is not to change everything; my job is to add certain things, certain nuances, offensively and defensively, and this is for me the only way to be able to be coherent, regarding the big picture, and regarding where we are now. I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve seen so far.”

Q: Do you feel the team is even further along in that learning, given the one or two extra days you’ve had since the Hearts game? It’s still a short amount of time, but do you feel like more has been passed across?

Wilfried Nancy: “Yes, if I had more time it could have been better, but to be honest the session we had this morning, I was really pleased, because this is a session that I usually do with all the previous teams that I had. It was the first time that I did it today, and the quality was spot on. So for me again this is a sign that my players are able to embrace what we want to do, but after that we’ll see how we can improve step by step.”

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Q: Are you the kind of manager that pays attention, listens to all the reaction online, reads the papers, listens to the radio, are you not interested in all of that?

Wilfried Nancy: “That’s a really good question, I’m going to be really honest with you. When I had the opportunity to become a coach, I was assistant coach for seven years, so I worked with many coaches. So I always told myself that when you become a coach, cut everything. So this is what I did, on Twitter I cut everything, regarding my name, regarding the club, regarding what people can say, because they have the right to say something.

“This is part of the job, that’s why we study for that, and after that, I’m not here to comment on everything. We can go to the restaurant together and maybe you’re going to say that you like the food, and me I’m going to say I don’t like it. So at the end of the day, this is part of the job, and I control what I can control to be good with my players, with my club, with the people that I work with, and to maximise our chance to win games by having good performance.”

Q: The players we’ve spoken to say they’re happy with the tactical tweaks, including changing the formation. Have they taken to your tactics and messaging well over the past week?

Wilfried Nancy: “Yes, to be honest, again, with a lot of humility I felt it, and it was a good challenge for me too, because this is the first time as a coach that I take a team in the middle of the season, and it’s new, so I come with a lot of confidence, but also with a lot of humility. And listen, it’s not about, you know everybody talks about the system, but we played with a back four the last game. Yes, defensively you would think that it was a back five, but we didn’t defend with a back five, we defended with a back four, sometimes it was a back three.

“So it’s not about the system, this is about the concept, this is about how do we want to play, how we can connect better, how we can manipulate the opposition to attack the box better, how we can disrupt the lines, how we can defend our box. This is the most important. And they understood that, and for me the system is not important, and also I like to be coherent.

“If I do something it’s because I believe that it can be good for the team, and if I need to adjust anything I will do it, because this is part of my job. But again, the idea is to be coherent with the way I am as a coach, the way I see football, and to give time to my players to process everything. Knowing that I know I need to win to buy time, but this hasn’t changed. It was the same when I was in MLS, it was the same when I was a player, it’s the same for you in your job, you have to be good to stay, it doesn’t change.”

Q: Has this been a whirlwind first couple of days for you and your staff?

Wilfried Nancy: “I just came in, jet lag, tried to anticipate everything, but again, this is part of our job. I’m really excited by that. I try to stay at peace with myself, at peace with the person that I am, try to open my eyes to understand the culture, try to open my eyes to also understand what is the context. After that, I’m going to do what I used to do in terms of the way I want to play, because this is a lifestyle, this is not something where I try to cope, this is something that I feel. After that, we’ll see.”

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Q: Does that take a lot of inner belief and inner confidence to trust in yourself, to trust in your staff and know that you put this club on the right path?

Wilfried Nancy: “As a coach, you have to be like that. As a leader, not a coach. As a leader. If you are not convinced that this is the way, you’re going to start to talk and the credibility that you should have, you will not have it. So this is part of the job and I am not a coach. I am a coach when I help my players to find the good foot to control or the good decision-making. But I am a leader. And a leader is to understand the context, is to have belief and is to merge this belief with the context and also to embrace adversity. This is, with a lot of humility, something that I try to do. I’m not saying it’s easy. But I’m saying that this is who I am and I believe that this is the best way for myself to be coherent and to do what I believe that is good for our team to win games.”

Q: There was a lot of outside noise around you using a tactics board on the side of the park. Does that reaction surprise you?

Wilfried Nancy: “People have the right to talk. So I’m going to dress one way, maybe he’s going to say that they don’t like the way I dress. So I don’t waste time on that. If I use it, it’s because it’s good for me. Simple as that. And I don’t think that I’m going to use it all the time. But I’m not worried.”

Q: This is your European debut, a match against Roma. Do you know what to expect in terms of atmosphere and the challenge the opposition will present?

Wilfried Nancy:“First of all, the first game, it’s an honour for me to play in the Europa League. But also, with a lot of humility, don’t forget that I’ve been a runner-up for the Champions League in CONCACAF. So I know what that means. Now I come from Europe, I know how to play in Europe and obviously this is different. But again, with a lot of humility, this is something that I’m looking forward to.

“Obviously, Gian Piero Gasperini, the coach of Roma, this is a coach that I respect a lot because the way he plays, his style of play, this is something that I studied many years ago. So I’m really excited to play, to have my debut here at home and really excited by this challenge.”

Q: You said your job is to find solutions and then prioritise. What is your immediate priority?

Wilfried Nancy: “My priority is to be coherent with what I believe that we can do to maximise our chance to win. This is that. After that, I have a long list like that, and the idea is to assess the player that I have, assess the context, assess the fact that we’ve been together only for one week and after that I have to prioritise. So instead of doing an example, an exercise that I like to do with 0 to 10, 10 on 10 in terms of complexity, I will not do it. I will do it only the five.

“And also, I’m not here to change everything because during the pre-season you can do it when we have five weeks, four weeks or three weeks. So this is the case. Again, I have to be smart and also pragmatic at certain moments to be able to be coherent with the team that I have at this moment.”

Q: Do coaches also have to be adaptable?

Wilfried Nancy: “Yes. I believe that the strongest, this is the people who are able to adapt to change. So for me, this is my philosophy. I’m not saying that I’m going to change what I believe, but I’m saying that I have to understand everything to be able to prioritise and after that we’ll see what I need to do to get better.”

Watch Wilfried Nancy’s second pre-match media conference, ahead of tonight’s Europa League match between Celtic and Roma at Celtic Park, below…

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