PRESS CONFERENCE | Mister Pisacane ahead of Atalanta-Cagliari

The Rossoblù head coach met with the media to preview the game at the “New Balance Arena” in Bergamo.

THE CHALLENGES OF THE GAME
“Besides Trepy, Felici and Idrissi, we will also be without Nzola, who continues to work to get back to his best physical condition as soon as possible. The team has trained very well this week, with great commitment and intensity. Two days ago, we also welcomed Mina back, and he has started training with the group. That gives us another option, in a game that will present many challenges. I expect a match between two well-equipped teams with different objectives: Atalanta have a strong squad, but we will go to Bergamo to play our game, without arrogance but also without any inferiority complex. We are aware of what we can realistically do, even against a team like Atalanta.”

DEFENSIVE OPTIONS
“Mina from the start? It’s a possibility. Yerry knows how to manage himself. He only started his season on 7 August, and he is a player who was involved in the World Cup. He was working his way back to full fitness when, at the best possible moment, he suffered some fatigue. We wanted to protect him and avoid taking any risks. But he never stopped training, either individually or partially with the group. The defensive line? We will have to make some assessments. For example, Rodriguez has had a sore throat this week and has played three games in a row. In the previous weeks, Deiola had been forced to come off to manage his workload. Kofler is in excellent shape. At the moment, I have plenty of options in defence. Apart from the game against Hellas, the department has put in some good performances. I will decide tomorrow morning who to play.”

FROM GAETANO TO WINKS
“Last year we believed in Gaetano and in what was a new role for him, as a deep-lying playmaker. Gianluca immediately embraced the new position with enthusiasm. He had the technical ability and tactical intelligence to play there, and it is above all down to him that he managed to attract the attention of a team playing in European competitions. I’m sorry he won’t be involved tomorrow and that I won’t be able to say hello to him. He is a great lad, a serious professional, and he always gave everything on the pitch. In midfield this year we signed a player who has always played as a deep-lying playmaker, so he doesn’t need time to implement some of our specific ideas. Winks knows that position very well. Compared to last season, our midfield has different characteristics, which are closer to the ideas of myself and my staff. Having said that, you still need to be able to perform both phases of the game. How much will Atalanta miss Gaetano? That’s a question for Sarri, but up to now Gaetano has been the least substituted player in the squad.”

FIRST CALL-UP FOR SUGAWARA
“Sugawara is available and will be involved in the game. He is a player we had been watching and really wanted. As soon as he heard about our interest, he said yes straight away. He wanted to have this experience, also considering the mark his fellow countrymen have left in Italy. We are convinced he can make a big contribution. He has quality, a good left foot, and it’s no coincidence that he is also good at taking free-kicks. He has scored some excellent goals during his career. He can defend, he has a good turn of pace and he can also play inside. He has certain characteristics that can also complement those of Zé Pedro.”

ROSSOBLÙ PLAYERS IN THE AZZURRI
“The preliminary call-ups of Alessandro Romano and Daniel Maldini for the Italy national team? It makes us proud. It would be great to continue what happened last year with Marco Palestra. For Cagliari, having players involved with the national team is something that highlights everyone’s work. They are two young players with potential and quality. I’m happy for them and I hope the preliminary call-up can turn into a full call-up. Maldini knows he needs to be more clinical in front of goal; I spoke to him after the game. I talk a lot with the players, but I believe that he, just like Fazzini, are players who need even more dialogue. I told him that he must not rest on the goal he scored; he needs to be angry. There are many things he could have done better. Focusing on what you can improve, even in a game in which you played a decisive role, allows you to put yourself in the right frame of mind. It’s a general principle, and it applies to me too: I certainly can’t rest on one victory. We have to approach the next games as if we had lost two direct clashes out of two. That allows us to have the right competitive edge and put it into practice.”

KEVIN CARLOS’ RETURN
“Kevin Carlos has been through the worst thing a person can experience, losing his mother. In these days, he has found the strength to shut himself off and focus during training, and that struck me. When he arrived, I asked him to decide for himself when and how he wanted to start training again. Instead, he told me he needed to push himself hard straight away. It’s difficult, but he wants to try to put this moment behind him. Football can be an ally in that respect. Compared to when he arrived, he is now settling into the group and the team’s automatisms much better. He has completed three really important training sessions, and I’m happy for him. He could start or come on as a substitute, but at the moment I know I have a player who wants to give everything and take the world by storm. I hope that, even in the short term, he can have some great moments.”

COMPETITIVE EDGE AND INTENSITY
“After 70 or 80 minutes of very high and ultra-attacking pressure, like the one we produced against Lecce, especially considering the heat, a drop in intensity can happen. It’s almost physiological. There is also a psychological component: we created many clear chances but weren’t able to score and put the game to bed. At that point, subconsciously, you can start to fear conceding an equaliser. Our competitive edge? We always want to be the team we saw during pre-season, against Arezzo, at Parma and against Lecce. As a staff, we also have to be good at trying to bring greater consistency to many aspects of our game. Against Hellas, I immediately took responsibility: I had changed eight of the eleven players, but above all, many of those players were playing together for the first time. Tomorrow we will be playing away from home, on a difficult pitch, against a team with enormous potential. We will have to be good at alternating between competitive intensity, attacking pressure and numerical superiority at the back. We can put in a great performance.”

STAY STRONG, MATTIA
“Without Felici, we lose freshness and that boldness in certain moments of the game. Mattia has certain characteristics that perhaps only one other player in the squad possesses — qualities that can allow you to change the course of a game by exploiting transitions and one-on-one situations, as also happened against Lecce. It’s no coincidence that when Mattia came on, we created three clear chances. We lose all of that, and Mattia loses the opportunity to put a difficult moment behind him. It’s a major blow for him and for all of us. But we will wait for him, and we are convinced of that: Mattia will come back, and he will come back even stronger.”

To round off the press conference, two Rossoblù supporters who have already signed up to the Islanders membership programme had the chance to ask their questions:

Luigi Pascalis: “This year we can see greater speed in our passing and ball circulation. Is that down to the arrival of new players with certain characteristics, or is it a specific request from the coach?”

“It’s a specific request from myself and the staff that dates back to last season. Now, however, we also have the work we did last year behind us, so we know when to speed up or slow down the game. The quality of the individual players allows you to do certain things.”

Andrea Demuru: “The group already seems very united — the tributes to Trepy and Kevin Carlos after goals, for example, as well as the comments from the new arrivals, who have all highlighted this aspect. Did the coach expect to create such a positive atmosphere this early in the season?”

“It’s a major objective. When we talk about the history of this Club and its values, the group and the family are among those concepts. Instilling a sense of belonging in new arrivals straight away is fundamental. The displays of affection that players such as Trepy and Kevin Carlos have received tell us that we are on the right track.”