CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 12, 2021

Raphael Wicky

Press Conference

Q. Is it seems as if every week you and the players repeat yourselves about fixing mistakes for need to go change, and so the question will be, when will things change?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Best -- best tomorrow. I can't give you that answer. I mean, that's obviously -- you know yourself that I cannot give you that answer but it has to change as quick as possible. Look, again, it's frustrating. It's frustrating when you lose games like that, like we did again on the weekend.

But this is the only way we can -- we can go forward. We speak with the players, what has to be better. We work on it and then yes, then it's on the players not to do these mistakes and we have to start tomorrow with that. That's the reality.

Q. Are you concerned that if the results don't turn that the message that you and the coaching staff are giving the players is just not going to be received? And do you feel like your words aren't just getting through to players right now?

RAPHAEL WICKY: No, I'm not concerned with that and I'm not worried about it because I know the team is together. I know the team is with us. I feel the team wants to do or does the things we are asking them to do. I don't feel a team which don't care. I don't feel a team which doesn't -- which doesn't fight, which doesn't -- which doesn't work together, and that's not at all what I feel.

I think that's why I'm not worried about it. I feel a team who, of course, when you don't win games and we're four games in, we have lost three games; that your frustrated and that probably is a little bit -- the confidence level always gets higher when you get wins.

So that's -- those are things I feel, but not at all that the team is not following us. The team -- the team is behind. We have a good relationship with the team. We work hard every day. The intensity and the work rate on the training ground is good, and that is important for me to see, of course. Then the results are making things easier sometimes and right now they make things difficult. But that doesn't change anything about how I -- how I feel and how I think about the team and the other way.

Q. Have you had any conversations with anyone or Joe, or have they given you indicate if your job is on the line and do you still feel your job is secure?

RAPHAEL WICKY: No, I haven't had many discussions with them. I feel I have the support from the club. The team has the support from the club. It's early. It's very early. I repeat myself, these games are frustrating, the results. But yeah, I feel the full confidence of the club.

Q. Just putting the results aside and everything, how do you view the efforts of this team right now on the field?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Like I said, I feel it -- I feel that the team is there who fights. It was the same in Philadelphia. It wasn't that the team didn't fight, didn't run, didn't work together.

Again you have, we were 0-0 at halftime in a game where we struggled. I think it was between the 15th and 15th and 17th minutes where we had two or three chances and we came back well and we had moments where we were equal and had some better momentums than they had and we had a chance or two, as well, our momentums, we were fully in the game. We were a team who took the battle on again. I feel like the work rate is there.

But obviously, again, repeating, we're missing on both ends of the field these little entities and stopping these mistakes. And also, when we have chances, scoring those chances because when things don't go well, you can't expect to have six, seven, eight, big chances every time. So there is games where you need -- where you need one or two chances and score and maybe turn things around and that's how I feel.

Q. The players and staff got the first round of the vaccine I think after the first game you said. When is the second shot scheduled and what percentage of the squad will be vaccinated?

RAPHAEL WICKY: We got the second shot on Saturday after the game. So we are most of us, I think it's almost everyone is fully vaccinated. Maybe two people are not, but as far as I know, all the others are vaccinated.

Q. What are you expecting to see from D.C. this Thursday? I know that they are kind of in a similar boat to you guys, injuries, struggling to start the season. What are you expecting to see from them on the pitch?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, look, first of all we are excited for a new game. Every game is a new opportunity. I know that they are also looking a little bit, they changed a lot of formations. They played 3-4-3, they play 4-4-3, 3-5-2, so from that term, we don't really know what to expect tomorrow but we know the players of D.C.

It's a home game so we know they are going to come out and want to pressure us. We know their style of play they have and they want to implement.

Yeah, those are the informations we gave the players. Other than that, we are trying to focus on ourselves. It doesn't make sense to then talk too much about the opponent because honestly it's all about us. It's about what we do; can we fix these little mistakes, little or big mistakes. Can we turn this thing around with the way we play.

Q. I have two very different questions. First of all, which vaccine was it? Was it Pfizer or Moderna? And also, I think you guys have given three goals off of throw-ins so far. What's going off there? Why is the team having letdowns off of throw-ins of all things?

RAPHAEL WICKY: I got the Pfizer. To be honest I don't know if everyone got the Pfizer or if we were actually able to choose. I can only talk about myself is. I got the Pfizer shots, and yeah, I feel fully vaccinated.

Q. Congratulations.

RAPHAEL WICKY: Thanks. Yeah, look, throw-ins, yeah, it's a topic we speak with the players. Obviously we show them the videos. It's communication. It's communication on the field. I don't think there's many, many teams who make training session based on only throw-s in. Throw-ins is a concentration, the ball is out, can you not relax, you have to quickly reset. You have to communicate. You have to show leadership on the field to take your shape to talk to each other and to make it as hard as possible for the open to go forward. So that's what it is. That's what we showed and talked to the players, and they know. So it's mostly a communication thing.

Q. I wanted to ask about the homegrowns on the team; what do they homegrowns need to do to break in to become contributors for you guys?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Look, they will get their time, I'm sure, some of them, I think some of the players are very close. They train well. Guti had a tough preseason, had a tough preseason. He played his games but he struggled a little bit in preseason. Guti, since about two, three weeks, he's back to the Guti we know from last year. He's doing better and better. I'm pretty sure he will have his moments.

Javi Casas says is training very well. Center midfielder is a lot of competition, as you saw last week, Medrán was out in the beginning so there is a lot of competition with experience and good players but Javi Casas trains very well.

I'm sure that over the course of the season when the moment is there and the time is right that these players will, and when they deserve, they will get those minutes.

It's always depending on multiple factors. Is your position -- is there a space in your position free; is there in your position a lot of traffic right now. That obviously always has an impact.

And to be honest, look, I was once a young player and I was thrown in. It's sometimes easier to put a young player in when things go well, when he as a team around him which flying and in confidence, and then you put one or two young guys in.

It's not always the easiest moments to put the young guys in when things don't go well. But with that said, like I said in the beginning, I'm pretty sure that some of the guys will get their minutes and will have an impact this season.

Q. I know one of the issues that you guys dealt with last year with getting players on loan was the fact that you couldn't move them freely; that you were pretty much stuck with who you sent there. Is that going to be the same this year or have you gotten any indication that it might be easier to move players back and forth between Chicago and Madison?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, I think that will be a bit easier. What I have heard is that two weeks after the second shot that things could potentially get easier with moving players around, sending them on loan, having them back. Even exchanging players within the academy if you need to bring players up or having -- for teams who have a second team, having scrimmages. So I heard that that should be open up again and should be easier.

But again, it's not -- it's not finalized yet so it may change like since a year -- since over a year things change every day. But this is the information I have. So I hope that this is going to be the reality so that we can give some of those guys more minutes and they need to get these minutes probably somewhere else than here. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...