CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 23, 2021

Bobby Shuttleworth

Press Conference

Cincinnati 1, Chicago Fire 0

BOBBY SHUTTLEWORTH: It's hard going through a season like this and the only way to get through it is to keep grinding and keep working and get your head down and push forward and we've got to continue to work in training and clearly there are a lot of things that we need to work on and continue to work on. But we're frustrated. We couldn't be more frustrated. We are talking about this stuff in our locker room and meetings and it's frustrating.

Q. You had a ton of mistakes in the first half. What happened that forced Cincinnati into making a lot of saved saves?

BOBBY SHUTTLEWORTH: I think first of all they have a lot of dangerous players and I think they were pressing us really well and we weren't really finding solutions in the first half and ultimately we went to try and play a little bit longer and we were finding a little bit more success with that.

But I think the first half we gave them too many chances off too many turnovers in bad areas and something we have to make an adjustment in the game to know that if this isn't working, we have to find solutions.

Q. How is the locker room right now and how are you as a team and are you guys still behind Rafa Wicky as your coach?

BOBBY SHUTTLEWORTH: First I want to answer and 100 percent I think Rafa is a great manager. He puts us in positions to succeed and we go over the stuff in training. As players we have to take responsibility sometimes for not stepping up and doing what the manager asks us to do. 100 percent I can speak for the team that we are behind Rafa.

I think when you're in a season like this, a little bit of holding each other accountable and grinding on each other and all that kind of stuff is a good thing. I think if we were all sitting in there laughing and joking right now, we shouldn't be professional players and we shouldn't be here.

I would say the frustration levels are high right now. If there are happy guys in the locker room, they shouldn't be here. They are in the wrong place. I think a little bit of it is good. That said, we have to remain positive and we know the stuff we are not doing well and when we get to a game day we have to approach it with positivity and try to turn the corner.

Q. The goal they scored, was there a mistake made by your defense or was it an amazing free kick and how are you with your injury? Where did you hurt yourself there?

BOBBY SHUTTLEWORTH: Just on the bar -- hit the ribs pretty bad. I don't have to look at it yet but I think following into the goal, it's soft, and I think it's very questionable. But it's good for a kick. I haven't watched it again so I'd have to look at it to know what kind of happened there and what we can do better. But that being said, I don't think it's a foul, and I think it's unfortunate. It just seems that that's the way -- kind of the way things are going for us right now at the moment.