Aitor Karanka conducted his weekly press conference at Rockliffe Park this afternoon, and in the televised section of the chat, he spoke about a number of different topics.
ON CRISTHIAN STUANI:
"It is not a surprise (to see how well he has done) because I have known him for many years. He was playing in Spain for four or five years at Santander, Albacete and Espanyol.
"It is not a surprise to me, although I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. I said after the game that he could score more than Bamford did last season, but I have to be careful with him because everybody knows how difficult this league is.
"He is scoring goals now, but maybe he will go one or two games without scoring at some stage. He has to be patient, but he has everything you need to score goals, especially when you are around good players.
"We have Cristhian scoring goals, but we can’t forget David Nugent, who is doing an amazing job for Cristhian and all the other players. It is a team job."
ON COMPARISONS BETWEEN STUANI AND THOMAS MULLER:
“I think one or two teams were interested in signing Muller for £100m – Stuani was a little bit less than that! I am really pleased because the main thing is that he has settled in really well.
"His English is not as good as Carlos de Pena’s, and he has only been here for a month, but he is happy here, and that is the main thing. When he is comfortable and playing in the right environment, he will score goals."
ON ALBERT ADOMAH:
“I was pleased, not about the hug because I know Albert and we don’t have to hug each other to show everybody our relationship, but because I was really pleased and proud about his performance.
"That was the Albert that I wanted to see on the pitch – a very good player, like he is – and that was the main thing.
"He played his best, and I said to everybody that the team has won with Albert’s decision to stay here. All of us know how important he was, and how important he will be for the team."
ON JOSE MOURINHO AND CHELSEA:
"Yesterday was a very dangerous game. It was the kind of game where if you win, it seems like it was easy, but if you lose, it’s a big problem.
"These kind of games are always dangerous, so to beat them 4-0, it was easy for everybody. I said before that I do not have any doubt that Jose will be fighting for the titles at the end. I am sure he will be. But it’s true that after the game yesterday, everything is going to be better."
ON THE EXPERIENCE IN THE SQUAD:
“I hope we are stronger because last season, it wasn’t enough. We have to be stronger, and I think it is important that we are more experienced.
"We have more experience this season, and you can already feel that in the games. Maybe, last season, we would have lost games like Sheffield Wednesday or Brentford.
"This season, we had a very good reaction in both games, and I think a lot of that reaction was down to the fact that we are more experienced. We have very good players right through the squad. Even when we need something from the bench, we have good players there."
ON NOTTINGHAM FOREST:
"You might think they are a worse team because they have lost a player like Antonio, who was a very important player for them, but that is not true.
"Now they are more compact and a very strong team who defend really well. They still have strong players up front who can hurt you. It is going to be a difficult game. We lost there last season, so we know how tough it will be."
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