Live TMW
11.50 – TheUdinese returns away after two home games and will visit Fonseca’s Milan, which is experiencing a season of ups and downs. At the press conference mister Kosta Runjaic will shortly explain the pitfalls of the challenge. Follow the live text on TuttoMercatoWeb.com.
12.05 – The press conference begins.
The closing point of the stop? Injured?
“We made good use of this break, especially in the first week. We trained intensely, as regards the weekend we also left two days free, making the most of the time available. Lovric and Payero are fully recovered. Thauvin still has to deal with this little problem he had following the match against Inter. A slight injury to his ribs, but it still hurts a little, so he can’t train with the group yet. He’s training in the gym and physiotherapy. but he can’t be in the group yet, I don’t know if he’ll be able to return next week, he would like to return immediately but as mentioned he’s still in pain, so currently Thauvin can’t put his boots on to play yet. Kristensen will be able to return to the group next week and that’s one good news, Sanchez is also now on the right track. Unfortunately Atta had a muscle problem, we don’t know if he will be able to be there tomorrow.”
There is enthusiasm, now we go to Milan in an unexpected situation perhaps compared to the predictions, could this be the biggest danger of the match?
“Each match is special, now after the international break we will play against Milan and I think it is a good opportunity, we will do everything we can to put them in difficulty and so that they are not able to put their quality on the pitch which is great. We will have to cover have good spaces and be compact, Milan are perhaps not in a great moment, they are not meeting expectations, but they have great individuality, without making lists, but they are one of the strongest teams in Serie A. We must all work together on the pitch, in a disciplined manner with the right balance between the two phases, we will have to keep the ball well, we will have to try to make Milan run after the ball, we will see if we can do that. I am generally satisfied with the performances so far, we must be more courageous some moments, from the match against Roma we learned important lessons for example, we have to start well because everything can be decided in a few minutes. We will have to be balanced.”
What stage is Pizarro at?
“Better than two weeks ago, he’s back with the team but you can see that he still has a lot to recover, he has to work intensely, he still doesn’t have the pace of the team. We’ll have to pay attention to managing his loads because we don’t want to waste time, he has all the time in the world, he’s a good guy, he’s ambitious, he’s been training with the team these days and you can see that he can be very dangerous in front of goal.”
Could Iker Bravo be a card to use tomorrow?
“I’m definitely thinking about it, he’s trained well, he has an excellent football team, you can see it, he has good playing principles, he scores a lot of goals in training, even in the last one I think he scored two. You can see that he has something special, he would always like to play, we are thinking about it, he could take the field from the first minute.
Lucca’s debut with Italy?
“We are very happy with his debut, he made his debut here in his stadium, a very nice experience for him, we know that the quality in the Italian national team is very high, now it is up to him to work during the week to be able to stay there. We want him to become a a regular player for the Italian national team, it’s a good opportunity for him, but now we have to think about Milan and provide a good performance.”
Brenner is coming off a bad match against Lecce, how is he?
“Against Lecce in the first half we provided an average performance, with some good moments but in other phases of the match we didn’t provide a good performance. It wasn’t easy for Brenner either because he had the ball at his feet less than he expected , he made some mistakes losing a couple of balls that he shouldn’t have missed and he knows it. We talk to him a lot and give him a lot of attention, he’s improving and has had some great plays, there’s a lot of competition and he has to prove himself He trains, he knows the situation, he knows well that we all have to train with energy and we have to deserve to be on the pitch. Brenner is a player with good qualities, he knows where he is, he has the trust of the team, we work a lot on video small groups or with individuals to analyze certain moments of the match”.
In defense have the three seen against Lecce been reconfirmed?
“I won’t say too much about the lineup because there is still refinement. We can’t wait to play, I will be at San Siro for the first time and this also applies to several boys, we will have to approach it well. It doesn’t matter so much who will be on the pitch but how the team will interpret the match”.
Is there a recipe for containing Milan’s wingers?
“A couple of days ago I saw the documentary on Napoli, I didn’t understand everything but there were very clear numbers, Leao has great numbers, against Napoli he made a run of 70 meters putting an assist for Giroud. He and Pulisic are players who are difficult to contain, if you leave them space to run they become very dangerous, if they pick up speed they can cause problems for anyone in the world, there is no particular recipe or solution. We have to leave them little space when we have possession we shouldn’t make mistakes. Against Lecce we lost a ball on the left in a trivial way and he had his greatest opportunity, due to an error on our part in possession. Against Milan it shouldn’t happen because they have very high level players, Pulisic I’ve known him since he played in Germany, Leao is very strong, everyone would like to have two like that in the squad. We’ve already talked about it, there are many videos where you can see the qualities of these guys, we have videos in which Leao dribbles half of Poland alone. They are players who determine the matches and for whom the fans come to the stadium to watch the match.”
12.26 – The press conference ends.