• Paying the price for defensive mistakes and failing to take their chances
  • Assessment of Casey's challenge and why players need protection
  • Injury update ahead of Benfica clash

Philippe Clement has spoken to the media following the defeat to Motherwell. Here is everything he had to say.

What was your assessment of the game?

We didn’t start the game well or the way we wanted. We talked about that a lot and the players wanted it. But the quality with the ball and without it, in the action of their goal, wasn’t good enough. I don’t point the finger at my centre-backs who have been really good in the last months. There was a mistake made today, clearly, maybe they were too eager to win the duel. And then you have the bad luck. That gives a lot of belief to the opponents. We had 70 percent ball possession and a lot of chances. But it was a day that was the opposite from a week ago. Last week, we had great quality and efficiency in our finishing. Today, it went a few centimetres away from the post or the goalkeeper made good saves. They had people on then line saving balls and then it would fall to the feet of our opponents. That’s a part of football you don’t control. You need some luck in certain circumstances. It’s our job in the next few weeks to push that luck to our side. We’re now starting a new series of games.

Was this the moment your team hit the wall you have spoken about?

Yeah, that’s the interesting thing now. I didn’t expect to have this moment after five months in the building. I thought it would be much earlier to have it. Now I’ll get to know my team even better. I know them really well already. But now I’m going to see who’s going to be the guys to stand up after a disappointment. I don’t doubt it too much. They are very disappointed and a lot of heads are down. I’m disappointed too not to get the three points. But you need to cope with it, take the right lessons and learn from it to become better. That’s our ambition now.

How is Ross McCausland?

Ross is bad because he was kicked off the pitch. There was no foul, no yellow card, no red card. When I see how we’ve got red cards in the last few months - then I see this action - I don’t understand it, to be honest. There is too much intensity. When you have to take a player off in the first half because he can’t walk any more after contact - you need to realise something bad happened there. But clearly not. I didn’t think about the fact the same player scored the winning goal. I only think about the chances we had to score. I only think about my team and making it better. We play every three days so I know everything can’t be perfect. But I’m pushing for that every minute I’m in the building. The players are pushing for it also but maybe today they pushed too much and lost in moments where they had to be decisive. That’s a learning point for us and we’ll take lessons for the future.

How important is it you don’t let one result derail where you want to be?

I said it from the beginning, it is a marathon. The way they did until now, it is already exceptional. It is not that today they didn’t create chances. It is not the case. We had enough chances. It is not that we didn’t get enough balls on target or good on target. That is part of football. How many times was the ball saved on the line today? It didn’t happen too much in my career, to be honest, a day like that. We need to look back at the game in a good way and then prepare the game of Thursday, which will be totally different. I told you guys already last week after the draw, this is going to be two games that we are not favourites because it is a team with a much bigger budget and with a lot of quality in all the squad. It is going to be, for me, not the barrier to look where my team is at the moment. It is going to be more in the weekend in the cup game where we see that. We are going to go to Lisbon to get the maximum out of the game and to be strong.

Is there any sign of anyone coming back in the wide positions? Rabbi Matondo perhaps?

Yes but not before Thursday. Rabbi is back training individually but not with the team yet. I think it will be short term that he will be back. But, of course, and it is the same story of today with players like Tom Lawrence, if they have been a longer time out you cannot put them every three days for 60, 70 minutes and for sure not 90 minutes. They need to build back up again. That is the situation for the moment and the team is giving everything. I don’t think that is the big reason of today. We had enough chances to score the goals. Rabbi will be short term he will be back.

Is it a good thing that it is two weeks until the next league game?

I don’t want to think too much about that. It is just taking it game by game and not calculating all these things. It is taking the knock now with the chest in front and now to recover in the next days to be ready for Thursday to play a totally different kind of game that we are used to playing. We will have much less of the ball than we have normally so we need to adapt to that. That is the next challenge for the team and then we will look for the next challenge in the weekend. Like this, game by game.

How long will Cortes be missing for?

It will be longer term. We are first talking with a specialist and together with Lens because we are not the ones deciding all the things that should happen with him. He is a player of Lens also still so we are in communication with them and to see what are the best people to take a look at the injury.

Do you think Casey should have been sent off?

I am not a referee. And I know every word I say becomes a big thing always. I think players need to be better protected. We have now already several players kicked off the pitch this season. I think they need to be protected in a better way. That is what I think.