Norwich City vs Leeds United: Dan James and Patrick Bamford injury update ahead of play-off semi-final

I’m not a believer of psychological games. Every team wants to win the points, if you don’t you are very disappointed and not happy. Pressure is always on both teams. Both teams have played to earn the right to win promotion. I don’t think there’s anyone at Norwich who is not willing to promote to the Premier League and says ‘no, we’d rather stay in the Championship’. Pressure is for the pundits to discuss. We want to be successful in these two games and earn the right to play at Wembley.

We need each and every man, it’s always good. Great actor, we are all happy that he is on board, but I don’t think it will help us much at Norwich to bring the ball into the rectangle. Says a lot about the calibre of the club. We are grateful for a lot of our well-known supporters. But it’s up to the players to bring the success. We can’t act the ball over the line, we have to shoot it.

You can’t hide it, the players are not stupid. It’s more like you can earn the right to play in Wembley, a do-or-die competition. They know it’s a spotlight game and we don’t hide behind the fact, but on the other hand to be there and don’t change too much in the approach or preparation. We won’t overdo anything. We had one or two days more this week to prepare, to sharpen up on a few details.

I love this and always encourage this. I have a feeling we have a really great spirit. This group is united and so tight together. For me it’s second to none, I think it’s outstanding and why this young team has played such a season with 90 points. We’re not the end product but the spirit was always good. In terms of togetherness and unity, you can be united when the sun’s shining, with a club record of unbeaten games, sadly we lost our last two games, they are still so together in these moments. These are the basic ingredients to be successful and be allowed to celebrate. Not a guarantee that we will celebrate but without the spirit you won’t. Hopefully the spirit carries us through the next days and weeks.

We were never predictable during the season, we’ve had different options and base formations. Principles are always the same. What we want to do with the ball, we always try to work on flexibility and plan B, C, D. We have different approaches to bring, but one of our key approaches is we want to have the ball and to be dominant. You will not see a Leeds United team under my regime that is scared and parks the bus, as long as I’m in charge.

After a loss it’s not like I want to hug my players and they don’t want to hug me. What you have to show and what you have to be is care about the situation. It’s the same with our supporters - they care about our success. To win or to lose faith, I don’t have the feeling at all that they’ve lost the faith. They showed with the lap of honour at the end of the game they are behind us. Our feeling is unity.

Season before doesn’t count anymore, it’s a new competition. 90 points and unbeaten record and most clean sheets, two wins against Norwich doesn’t matter anymore.

It’s not that we press a magic button and do something different, try to park the bus and put balls out the stadium - that’s not Leeds United, that’s not my team. We want to be active against the ball, try to sharpen our strength in the last days.

Man management is always important in my role. Especially when you work with a pretty young side, but I trust my players. It’s definitely not about me or about playing chess with the opponent’s manager - it’s just about the players. The manager is there to support them, back them and help them, to make sure of the best possible training week. To have the right exercises to make sure the spirit is there. This game won’t be won or lost by whatever great or not that great decisions of a manager. It’s totally up to the players.

Important that others step up, some others will get our nod and the whole squad has my backing and trust. We don’t feel too sorry for ourselves.