CM Story - The Story of Josh McEwen

Leeds United (4-4-1-1): Perri, Justin, Bijol, Wober, Gudmundsson, Gnonto (Off 65), Stach (Off 73), Longstaff (Off 53), Nakamura, Aaronsen, Okafor 

Subs: Meslier, Christensen (On 73), Ampadu, Nmecha (On 65), Bornauw, Tanaka (On 53), Piroe, Gruev, Schmidt 

Wolves (4-3-3): Agirrezabala, Garcia, Goes, Krejci, Wolfe, Florentino, Ward-Prowse (Off 61), Gomes (Off 61), Esse, Arokodare, George (Off 61) 

Subs: Johnstone, Kabore, Bueno, Agbadou, Hackney (On 61), Toth, Doyle (On 61), Arias, Hwang Hee Chan (On 61) 

Q: Jagoba a disappointing day for your side after being in great form. What did you think of the game today? 

Jagoba Arrasete “It was a tough game, Wolves are a top team and I thought we made things to easy for them at times today. It is hard when a team comes and passes like they did today and dominates the ball like they did I don’t think we pressed them enough and when you show a team the respect we showed them it is always going to be difficult. We have a big game against Manchester United next and it is a massive three points for us.” 

Q: Josh a fantastic performance from your side. Are you back to your best now? 

Josh McEwen “We were today thats for sure, we were outstanding the way we pressed when we lost the ball the way we moved the ball when we had it, it was amazing to watch. Our plan was the same as it always is to move the ball, create chances and try to win the game and the way in which we executed that plan today was outstanding everyone played their role and we prepare for our next game now with Chelsea with confidence high.” 

Wolves (4-3-3): Agirrezabala, Garcia, Goes, Krejci, Wolfe, Florentino, Toth (Off 68), Hackney (Off 68), Arias, Arokodare, George (Off 68) 

Subs: Johnstone, Kabore, Bueno, Agbadou, Gomes (On 68), Ward-Prowse, Doyle (On 68), Esse, Hwang Hee Chan (On 68) 

Chelsea (4-2-1-3): Jorgensen, Carvajal, Colwill, Chalobah, Hato, Fernandez, Caicedo, Palmer, Estevao, Joao Pedro (Off 86), Gittens (Off 68) 

Subs: Penders, Fofana, Santos, Delap, Badiashile, Garnacho, Griezmann (On 86), Neto (On 68), Sarr 

Q: Josh a fantastic win for your team. Theres a lot of speculation regarding your future is there any truth you might be leaving the team soon? 

Josh McEwen “We were outstanding again, I think the way the team is playing at the moment is amazing back to back wins against two very tough teams. Chelsea last month absolutely dominated us and today was the total opposite we controlled large periods of the game, granted we made some errors that allowed them some goals but overall I thought we were by far the better team and deserved this win. In terms of my future my contract is up at the end of the season we wanted to talk about it last season but the board said no so we’ll see at the end of the season if the board want to renew it this year then we’ll sit down.” 

Q: Patrick a tough defeat, its been a disappointing season for Chelsea. Do you feel under pressure at the moment? 

Patrick Vieira “It was a poor display by us today especially the second half. Conceding so close to the half time whistle was a bitter blow and we didn’t seem to recover from it in the second half. We knew it would be a difficult game after last months game they were always going to be out for revenge and we needed to start brighter. You always feel pressure at a club like Chelsea especially at the moment when results aren’t going well but I am confident I can turn it around with these players.”

Wimbledon (5-4-1): Bishop, Ogundere, Harbottle, Johnson, Bauer, Seddon, Foyo (Off 47), Smith, Reeves, Brown, Stevens 

Subs: McDonnell, Young, Hippolyte (On 47), Bugiel, Hackford, McCoy-Splatt, Orsi, Sasu, Maycock 

Wolves (4-3-3): Johnstone, Kabore, Mosquera, Agbadou, Bueno, Gomes, Ward-Prowse, Doyle, Esse, Arokodare, Hwang Hee Chan 

Subs: Agirrezabala, Garcia, Wolfe, Krejci, Florentino, Toth, Hackney, Arias, George 

Q: Ewan so close to extra time how devastating is it to concede so late? 

Ewan Miles “Yeah it hurts a lot to concede so late when extra time was looming but I can’t criticise my lads we executed our game plan to perfection. We were hoping to frustrate them and I thought we did that but I didn’t think Wolves would remain as patient as they did. When we equalised I thought Wolves are going to come flying at us now and we’ll get the chance to counter them but they stuck to their plan and it made it so hard for us to break on them. They’re a team in fourth in the league with a striker that has scored for fun this season and I thought we handled them pretty well for long spells but we just struggled to get the ball off them.” 

Q: Josh 79% possession your team controlled a lot of the ball without creating a lot of chances. What did you make of your teams performance? 

Josh McEwen “Fantastic, we made one mistake with a poor pass from Issa (Kabore) which Stevens intercepted and they scored from this but other than that the team did exactly what we wanted to do. I said to them when a team plays with five defenders and four midfielders you have to keep the ball remain patient and make your chances count. I was adamant don’t get frustrated because they are going to defend deep don’t take long shots work the ball into the box and we will create the chances and even in the last minute when we scored it was a patient move where we passed and passed and opened up the space so you may say only 2-1 vs a team in a lower league but it was so controlled I am happy.” 

Brentford (4-2-3-1): Kelleher, Vanderson, Paredes, Garcia, Henry, Yarmoliuk, Janelt, Ouattara, Schade, Damsgaard (Off 85), Igor Thiago 

Subs: Cox, Collins, Munetsi (On 85), Moreno, Kayode, Milambo, Hutsuliak, Maghoma, Arthur 

Wolves (4-3-3): Johnstone, Garcia, Goes, Krejci, Bueno, Florentino, Toth, Gomes, Esse, Arokodare, George 

Subs: Agirrezabala, Kabore, Wolfe, Agbadou, Doyle, Ward-Prowse, Hackey, Arias, Hwang Hee Chan 

Q: Ben a tough week that saw Keith Andrews dismissed, did that hinder your sides preparation ahead of such a big game? 

Ben Keegan “It’s never nice when a manager loses his job and obviously it makes things difficult especially when you're trying to prepare for a team as good as this Wolves team are that being said I thought we started brightly the first ten minutes especially Dango (Ouattara) but then Wolves scored twice in ten minutes which is a theme that they do so often and I warned our players about when they score one normally a second follows and unfortunately we’ve fallen victim to that. What disappointed me was after that we just let them pass without really putting pressure on them and we didn;t really threaten them but we have a second leg and an early goal will put pressure on them but our focus now is on the league and getting more points on the board.” 

Q: Josh a 2-0 win in a game that you controlled was that the perfect first leg away performance? 

Josh McEwen “I’d say it was yeah, when a team changes manager it makes it harder to prepare as you don’t know what shape or which players might come in but we started well got our two goals early and like you say we controlled the game from there. We could have had a couple more we had a few that went just wide but we are happy with the 2-0 away from home and now we turn our focus back to the league and a tough tie away at Ipswich on Saturday.” 

Ipswich Town (4-2-3-1): Andrew, H.Clarke, Greaves, O’Shea, Davis, Matusiwa, Taylor, Egeli (Off 55), J.Clarke, Szmodics (Off 79), Abraham 

Subs: Palmer, Furlong, Rodriquez (On 79), Hirst, Johnson, Philogene (On 55), Al Hamadi, Nunez, Baggott 

Wolves (4-3-3): Agirrezabala, Garcia, Goes, Krejci, Wolfe, Florentino (Off 51), Ward-Prowse (Off 79), Hackney (Off 51), Arias, Arokodare, Hwang Hee Chan (Off 51) 

Subs: Johnstone, Kabore, Bueno, Agbadou (On 51), Toth, Doyle (On 79), Gomes (On 51), Esse, George (On 51) 

Q: Brian against ten men after such a dominant first half what went wrong in the second half? 

Brian **bleep**an “I can’t believe we’ve lost that game. We were so good in the first half then we started the second half so fast, Szmodics has gone through on goal and been brought down and the ref has shown the red and your thinking we've got a massive chance here now and then three minutes later your 1-0 down and I just don’t think we recovered from that and then we’ve gone and conceded another from a corner and it just summed our season up to be honest we should have taken something from the game with how we were playing and we are here empty handed because we’ve switched off.” 

Q: Josh a lot to digest after that game but you’ve won. Firstly the red card what are your thoughts on that and also speculation this week has said Hwang Hee Chan has handed in a transfer request is that true? 

Josh McEwen “I don’t think it was a red card but how good was Wouter (Goes) today absolute rock at the back and then to get a goal at the end just capped off a truly world class display we are all buzzing with him. I thought Joao (Gomes) when he came on a man down in midfield he was absolutely unbelievable and obviously Ty (George) off the bench with an assist three minutes later I could go on and on just unreal after a terrible first half. Hwang has said he would like to leave for more minutes but he won’t be leaving this month we have relied on him so much so it was a surprise but we have no intention of doing any business this month.” 

Wolves (4-3-3): Agirrezabala, Garcia, Goes, Agbadou, Wolfe, Florentino, Toth, Gomes, Esse, Arokodare, George 

Subs: Johnstone, Kabore, Bueno, Mosquera, Hackney, Ward-Prowse, Doyle, Arias, Hwang Hee Chan 

Fulham (4-2-3-1): Rulli, Castagne, Bassey, Andersen, Calafiori, Lukic, Berge, Wilson (Off 56), Iwobi, Smith Rowe (Off 81), Ayoze 

Subs: Leno, Dorgu, Kevin (On 81), Jimenez, Cuenca, Bellegarde, Harris, Duranville (On 56), Tete 

Q: Josh a comfortable win in the end, in a week where speculation has been rife about both yourself and Hwang Hee Chan. How has this week been? 

Josh McEwen “The week has been a normal one for me, speculation is always there for players and manager but my focus is on Wolves and the same goes for Hwang he isn’t leaving and he has worked hard like he always does but was unlucky that Ty (George) also had a good week of training. The performance I don’t think was our best especially the first half but Joao has scored what was a definite penalty and then hes added a second I don’t think before today he scored but then he scored twice. Emmanuel (Agbadou) has been so patient this season with Ladoslav (Krejci) playing ahead of him but today the way he stepped out to win the ball and then to score a goal he deserves more chances and I think now we will see more of him.” 

Q: Marco a disappointing result but what did you make of the scoreline do you think it flatters them? 

Marco Silva “I think 1-0 would flatter them. It was a game where at half time we are 2-0 down but we have dominated the entire game, I thought the penalty was harsh it was more he tried blocking a shot then trying to foul him but a six foot four striker goes over under that pressure I am not convinced then the second one Bassey wins a header it bounces of Joao (Gomes) and straight into his path and he scores so at half time what do I say keep dominating and miss your chances. Second half we weren’t as good but Wolves didn’t do much either then they score from a corner and the result makes it look like they deserved to win when they didn’t.” 

Manchester City (4-3-3): Donnarumma, Lewis, Dias, Stones, Gvardiol, Kimmich, Reijnders (Off 60), Kovacic, Foden, Haaland, Doku (Off 75) 

Subs: Oblak, Ait-Nouri, Mubama, Nunes, Rodri (On 60), Cherki, Dickson, Savinho (On 75), Ake 

Wolves (4-3-3): Agirrezabala, Garcia, Goes (Off 45), Agbadou, Wolfe, Florentino, Toth (Off 66), Gomes (Off 45), Esse, Arokodare, Hwang Hee Chan 

Subs: Johnstone, Kabore (On 45), Bueno, Mosquera, Ward-Prowse (On 45), Doyle (On 66), Hackney, Arias, George 

Q: Gregorio a 2-1 win against a tough Wolves team. What did you make of the game? 

Gregorio Gimenez “It was a close game, I thought we didn’t deserve to go behind and the way we responded to going behind was fantastic. Erling (Haaland) is such a special talent and we have to work to get more out of him because we have seen before how prolific he can be but he isn’t reaching them heights this season. Phil (Foden) is such a talent we are a much better team when he plays and today I thought he was at his best.” 

Q: Josh speculation is rife now that Arsenal are going to make an approach for you in the coming days after dismissing Antonio Conte can you comment on that speculation? 

Josh McEwen “I can’t comment on speculation, when you are linked with a team like Arsenal you must be doing a good job otherwise those links wouldn’t be the case but my focus is on Wolves and trying to finish as high as possible here I have six months on my deal but I wanted a new deal in the summer it was their choice not to renew but my focus is on Wolves. Today I thought we were unlucky to lose against a very good Man City side we took an early lead but we couldn’t hold it and then obviously it is difficult at the Etihad to come away with points and a mistake has cost us a point.”