On the eve of an important Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev, John Terry has spoken about the togetherness within the squad and insisted the players are united, fully behind Jose Mourinho and determined to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible.
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The captain, addressing the media at Cobham ahead
of tomorrow’s match against the Ukrainian side,
spoke openly and honestly about our current
situation, and said it’s the players who must
shoulder the blame.
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‘First and foremost the players will stand up. I’ve not
been good enough and performances haven’t either.
.We realise where we are in the league, and where
we are in the Champions League group, and we
know what we need to do to get out of it,’ he said.
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‘That responsibility lies on us, not the manager, it
lies on us as players.
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Terry, who feels there has been an improvement in
performances in recent weeks, explained what it will
take for the situation to be reversed.
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‘It will take a dressing room that stays together,’ he
said. ‘We’ve seen in the last two or three days
ridiculous stories about what’s happening within the
club and within the dressing room. I can assure you
now the players are 100 per cent behind the
manager.
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‘We’re together and anyone who’s been at the last
four or five games of ours will have seen a turn in
the way we’re playing. We hold our hands up and in
the first part of the season we weren’t good enough,
but in the last four games we’ve been extremely
unlucky not to come away with a couple of wins.
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‘I’m sure we’re on the up and we will turn things
around. Being together is the most important thing
and we’ll stay together in that dressing room.’
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Shortly before Terry arrived, Mourinho had conducted his own press conference, and the skipper was fully supportive of his manager.
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‘He’s under pressure because of the way we’re
performing,’ stated the defender. ‘He can do all the
work he wants on the training field and in team
meetings but once we step over that white line it’s
out of his hands a little bit.
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‘It’s on us and collectively we know we need to be
better, for this football club and for him.
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‘As an individual he’ll come and front you guys (the
media) after games and take a lot of the
responsibility, which is unfair. We are prepared to
fight and anyone who’s been at the games can see
that in the way we’ve reacted and responded.
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‘I’ve known him a long time and he’s always been the
same. He’s very demanding and he wants the players
to win, even on the training field. He’s really
disappointed and devastated after results and he
takes a lot of that responsibility on his own
shoulders, which is him all over, taking it away from
the players because we’re the ones who haven’t been
good enough.
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‘Collectively, us as players, him, the fans and
everybody at the club, we will bounce back and
climb up the table, I’m sure of that.’
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