Only one victory in the last seven days of the championship, with the draw against Palermo last weekend as the last result. This is the photograph of the moment Modena in Serie B on which the sporting director of the Emilian club expressed his opinion, Andrea Catellani during the show ‘Sport Qui’ broadcast on TV Here:
“There are many games left at the end of the season, it’s obvious that we hoped to have a few more points and we could have had it: the table is so short that with an extra point or two we would be talking about the playoff zone. There are, however, some positive signs , as demonstrated by the comeback against a battleship like Palermo who built the team to win the championship, another team would have given up after the double disadvantage, but we had a great reaction: clearly it can’t always go like this, so it is necessary. concede less, but the soul of this group is there. I believe we haven’t seen the definitive Modena yet, but despite this and despite the many absences we’ve had, some foreseen and some not, we are in the belly of the table.”
Space, then, for the evaluation of some individuals. Starting from Mattia Caldara: “It was the first shot of the last transfer market and the biggest risk we took. I had seen him play in the Primavera last year and I had noticed his positive attitude with the younger players. The fact of having known that would have expired, combined with his desire to relaunch himself, he wanted to be a protagonist and he is giving us a lot of experience and leadership. The intervention in Cesena was bad, but the fact that he apologized and was reassured by the Romagna players, does it show what a player and what a person he is? approached and we managed to complete it. In terms of condition he didn’t worry us: he scored a goal in Frosinone, his condition was improving and he played against Juve Stabia suffered a soleus injury, where he already had one muscle scar which combined with the edema prevented him from training. Now he seems to be better and we are almost there for his return. He is a player who can help us make an important leap in quality, we hope to have him already on Saturday in the derby. Pedro Mendes? The only unknown was the muscle injury last season: he came back and did well, then he got injured against Juve Stabia. I’m happy with Pedro: he has a great mentality and he shows it by also trying to shorten recovery times. It is one of those assets that will allow us to plan for the future, it will guarantee us high levels. Case? I hope he is ready to return, he too could be there already on Saturday against Sassuolo, but I won’t go too far. We had foreseen that he might not be ready for the first matches, he was coming off a long period of inactivity and had a contracture, so we decided to stop him so as not to lose him for any longer.”
Then a thought on the club’s seasonal objectives: “The fact of being able to reach the left side of the table is plausible. The club has continued its growth path, everyone’s expectations are important and this is Modena’s luck and our strength. We are in the belly of the group, four points from fourth place.”
Finally, some background on the market. Indeed, one regret: “Nicolò Savona: in the summer we had already spoken to his agent and Juventus, they told us that he would have retired with the first team, but that if he left he would have liked to go to Modena. It had been one of the first ideas of market, but then Juventus decided to focus on it straight away.”