On the romance of the FA Cup…

For me, more than the aesthetic beauty of football is that the best team doesn’t always win. Clubs have a big way of identifying someone and someone increases their form of identification when they come up against a big opponent. The fact the best players are playing against someone who is not as good, is something very valuable. The worst thing that can happen to football is that clubs with historical value disappear. A way to keep them alive is with a competition like this one. 

On preparation to face Crawley… 

It’s exactly the same, we consider every opponent the same way. We’ve analysed them the same way as we do a Premier League team. Nowadays all the games are available and we can watch all the games Crawley have played this season. We take advantage of this opportunity to learn as much as possible. Knowing an opponent doesn’t mean you can control them or neutralise them. You can be dominated by a rival you know by memory, and you can be superior to an opponent you’ve never seen before. It’s part of our job and we have the time to get to know our following opponent. One of the things I didn’t mention when I was asked about Crawley, was that they changed the positions of their players a lot during the games. For every player apart from the two centre-backs, the majority of their players play in two or three different positions. For me, this is something to admire, something to praise for Crawley and their manager. 

On facing a lower league team…

What I do know with certainty is that to play against a team in League One or League Two is not easy. In this moment, there’s games being played in the cup in Spain and if you have a look you will find some unexpected results. Because what is attractive in football, is that not necessarily the team who is better, wins. 

On the opportunity of playing in the FA Cup… 

From my point of view, Leeds shouldn’t lose contact with the base of football in this country. Because those teams, they give a nutrient to the pyramid of the league. Also because the ambition to play against these top teams has to be available and thirdly because I feel it is healthy for the bigger teams to be able to help the smaller teams, to be generous with the smaller teams. An expression of generosity is to compete with them as equals.

On the starting XI… 

There won’t be any players that haven’t played before. Liam Cooper is in conditions to play and whilst Diego Llorente is also in conditions to play if needed, we are being more cautious with him. Tyler Roberts is not available for this game.