Fri, 23rd Nov 2007
Avram Grant has backed his England players to put their international knockout blow behind them before facing bottom club Derby on Saturday.
With four of those who played against Croatia and another who was on the bench in the Chelsea squad heading north, any boost to morale is welcome and it has come with the news that John Terry is likely to take to the Pride Park pitch.
'We will see if John is ready to play from training today, but I think he can play tomorrow,' Grant announced before the final coaching session ahead of the game.
'When you are professional players, sometimes you have good times but you also know that you have disappointing times,' the Chelsea first team coach/manager explained.
With four of those who played against Croatia and another who was on the bench in the Chelsea squad heading north, any boost to morale is welcome and it has come with the news that John Terry is likely to take to the Pride Park pitch.
'We will see if John is ready to play from training today, but I think he can play tomorrow,' Grant announced before the final coaching session ahead of the game.
'When you are professional players, sometimes you have good times but you also know that you have disappointing times,' the Chelsea first team coach/manager explained.
'I want players with character who know how to behave in the very good times but also in the disappointing times. You have seen before that our players are doing that well.
'For any country that thinks their players are the best, what happened on Wednesday is some sort of tragedy. The players didn't like the result of course but they know they have a game on Saturday and life goes on.'
More concerning to Grant than the mental fortitude of his England players will be the possible absence of Didier Drogba at Derby.
The Ivorian has returned with a knee problem after international friendly action on Wednesday.
'For any country that thinks their players are the best, what happened on Wednesday is some sort of tragedy. The players didn't like the result of course but they know they have a game on Saturday and life goes on.'
More concerning to Grant than the mental fortitude of his England players will be the possible absence of Didier Drogba at Derby.
The Ivorian has returned with a knee problem after international friendly action on Wednesday.
'Petr Cech, Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho are still injured, maybe also Didier Drogba,' Grant revealed. Friday's training will make up the manager's mind over the striker's availability.
Though not ready for a return tomorrow, there was positive news on calf-strain victim Cech who Grant said is progressing well.
On Ricardo Carvalho, who injured his back in Chelsea's last match, he added: 'The situation is not good with him. At the least he will miss four weeks of games.'
Chelsea are odds-on favourites to record a fourth consecutive league away win with online betting partner Paddy Power quoting 2/7 on a Blues victory.
Though not ready for a return tomorrow, there was positive news on calf-strain victim Cech who Grant said is progressing well.
On Ricardo Carvalho, who injured his back in Chelsea's last match, he added: 'The situation is not good with him. At the least he will miss four weeks of games.'
Chelsea are odds-on favourites to record a fourth consecutive league away win with online betting partner Paddy Power quoting 2/7 on a Blues victory.
However, even though Derby face us on the back of a 5-1 thumping by West Ham and have not tasted success for seven games, Grant is guarding against complacency.
'I saw the last game against West Ham on video and until the first goal, Derby were better and played good football. I have seen other games like I do usually and I know it will not be an easy game.
'Every manager when he loses a game will be wanting his players to do better and I don't think that there are two games the same. The game against West Ham for them was poor but they will want to learn from this and do better. We are taking that into our consideration.'
'I saw the last game against West Ham on video and until the first goal, Derby were better and played good football. I have seen other games like I do usually and I know it will not be an easy game.
'Every manager when he loses a game will be wanting his players to do better and I don't think that there are two games the same. The game against West Ham for them was poor but they will want to learn from this and do better. We are taking that into our consideration.'
2 comments:
What is "hangover"?
Babelfish doesn't know!!!
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