“I think we have to look at ourselves, obviously. We have to look at our positives and our strengths. For us it’s important that we come out of the gates flying, we keep our shape and we look to put them under pressure. See if we can get something early and go from there. We have been scoring goals but we’ve also been letting them in. For us it’s very, very important that we tidy things up at the back and we keep our shape and keep our discipline and eliminate their chances. They’ve got some decent players: Omar Cummings, [Conor] Casey, and [Brian] Mullen has done well against us and so has [Jaime] Castrillon. They’ve got some talented players, but at the moment, they’re maybe not gelling. But for us it’s important that we take one win and turn it into two. Then take two and move forward from there. But that’s something we haven’t done, to date. That’s another box we do need to tick.”

“I think Colorado [on June 30] was a poor effort from the group. It’s important that we start to get recognized as a team that will work hard for 90 minutes both on the road and at home. We did not put in a good team performance in Colorado, we conceded three goals and it was a lackluster effort. It’s important that we take that into the game and actually turn that into a positive and look to see what we can do against them.”

“[Preparation] stays exactly the same, to be honest. It’s something [the hiring of Caleb Porter] that I think everyone is rightly excited about and looking forward to. But for us, it’s important to focus on the game tomorrow. The players aren’t going to change, the coaching staff at the moment is going to be here. Caleb is the future of the club, coming in in December, so it’s important that we give him a good platform from which to build from. It’s up to the players and ourselves [the coaching staff] to get more out of the group.”

“I’ve spoken to Brunner. I want to get him 90 minutes in the next reserve game and then get him back into the fold. His fitness is coming along and he’s looking better and better in training. So at the moment, we’ve given him 45 minutes in a game against Oregon State, 75 minutes against San Jose [reserves] and now can we get him 90 minutes? Central defenders are ones you never plan on changing so you’ve got to be able to play 90 minutes. That’s our plan for him.”

“Kalif [Alhassan] is at about 80 or 85%, by his numbers. For us, I think it’s very important that we get him a lot fitter to fit into the way we’re playing and how we’re playing. I think we’re expecting a little bit more. He’s a player that, when fit and healthy, could come in for Sal [Zizzo], could come in for D[Arlington Nagbe], could come in and cause problems. But it’s important that, one: we’re starting to raise the bar within the current group to say that you need to be fitter to actually start and you need to be fitter to play. Every player we should be able to go into games saying he should get us 90 minutes. Not, we’re probably going to get 70 out of him and then we’ll have to make a change. I don’t think that’s a positive. So for Kalif, we’re working on his fitness.”

“The training’s are more the evaluation…not more, but trainings are just as much an evaluation as the games. For those who have come in and played well, they get to play again. So it becomes a better evaluation for that player. The more we can see the player in a competitive environment, the healthier I think it is for everybody. But also, they’ve got to perform in trainings to get to start. I’ll go back to Sal [Zizzo]. The reason he’s starting right now is he played against Oregon State, basically a practice game, and did extremely, extremely well. Then against Aston Villa, another practice game, did very, very well. He’s taken his opportunities and made the most of them. He was working extremely hard in trainings and adding in extra sessions to put himself in this position. I think that’s what we need from everyone. Once you play, and you play well, then we can evaluate you and actually give a positive recommendation. For us, it’s important that we do get to see everyone. There’s limited reserve games left. But the ones that count against the salary cap the most are the ones we need to evaluate more. The other ones you can move a little bit easier. That’s just the way it is.”

“It’s a tough one. I’ve sat down with Eric [Alexander] and I’ve sat down with Diego [Chara] and put it in front of both of them. I can’t give you a nod as to who’s starting tomorrow but we’ve got two good pieces. Those are good selection problems. Let’s just say Diego starts and Eric doesn’t, Diego has to play well because now you know you’ve got a quality piece with which to replace him. Building depth and actually starting to get more out of the group, I think you need that. You need healthy decisions to make. And as long as the players understand, and they’re good, good players, we can continue to move forward as an organization. I think Rodney Wallace filled a purpose when he came on. He’s always going to give you running and always going to give you a level of energy. So it’s a good problem to have.”

“I think you’ve got to take in the experience of the player, the quality of the player, the level of consistency in performances. If you’ve got a player who’s lost their job due to injury and been out for quite some time, it’s only fair to reevaluate them in the current environment and with current results and current performances. If you’ve got a player like Diego Chara that been one of our most consistent players, one of our hardest working players and epitomizes what we are as an organization, gets suspended for one game, do you make that decision based on just one game or do you look at a string of five or six games or five or six performances? I’m a great one for reward a winning team. But if you can reward a winning team while improving your position to win, then you should do that.”

“If we just won this game, and we just signed Wayne Rooney, he would play. It’s hard to come up with a hard-and-fast rule. You’ve got to look at the environment, you’ve got to look at the situations. With Diego Chara, I absolutely think he’s a tremendous person and a tremendous player and works extremely hard. You can never question his work ethic, his character. You can’t question any of those things. I’m not saying if he came in and replaced Eric [Alexander] that you’d question any of those things, but what we need is three, four, five games from Eric. So when he gets the opportunity, he has to make the most of it again. And now we have to evaluate and say, that’s two good games out of Eric when he’s come in. But the thing is, can he put in three, four, five in a consistent string? We try to solve those things, but coaching is just guess work, and hopefully educated guess work.”