What I've seen from my players this summer gives me courage. I believe we will have a better season than the last 2 seasons. We had a solid pre-season run.

We had the opportunity to work with the players before the season for the first time. This is a topic that can be very helpful to a coach. A few players joined us late, but overall we were together and it was a productive camp. I hope this positive atmosphere will be reflected in the first matches of the league.

Everything that can be said for Fulham is clear. They had a very strong season and they have very good players. We have to be ready for everyone.

We're not preparing for the Everton game any different. Sometimes you think it will be harder to play with teams that finish at the top of the league, but if you don't pay attention to the others, it can be the biggest mistake you can make.

I know what it means as well to play the first away match of the season at Goodison, the environment that is going to be there, the support for the home team as well, and it’s a very good challenge for us. We have to play at our best level, we have to be really competitive. We are going to play against a physical, really physical team, you can see the size, the aggressiveness – of course in the right way – that they play, and we have to reach a certain type of standards, and when we have the ball we have to express ourselves.