PRESS ROOM | Coach Pisacane before Pisa-Cagliari

Rossoblù coach Fabio Pisacane met with the media at the CRAI Sport Center to present the match at the “Cetilar Arena” against Pisa, scheduled for Sunday at 3:00 PM.

SOME PLAYERS ARE COMING BACK
“I like to think positively, even though there are always pitfalls around the corner. Today, I’d like to focus not on the absences, but on the players we have back: Mina will be there, as will Mazzitelli and Gaetano. This team has one fundamental characteristic: despite the difficulties along the way, it never gives up.”

FORZA RIYAD
“I feel so sorry for Idrissi, but, always to put us in a positive frame of mind, I reassured him by telling him that he was lucky after all: if this injury had happened to him in July, he wouldn’t have made his Serie A debut, he wouldn’t have shown off his qualities, which are now starting to be recognized by everyone.”

THE OPPONENT
The Pisa game can be considered a match point for survival: every game can bring us closer to our goal. The standings, however, don’t reflect what the Tuscans deserved this season. They’ve played some important games, perhaps losing due to incidents. They’re an organized team, they were before with Gilardino, and they are now with Hiljemark. They’re capable of staying in the game, and they have good records from the waist up. So we’ll have to be extremely focused on the pitch. There’s no real need to warn my players; they know exactly what kind of game awaits us. Pisa has a clear identity, and we’ll have to be good at limiting them. They have weaknesses, critical issues, and that’s where we’ll have to be effective in attacking them.

READING THE MATCH
“Another important aspect is that we’ll have to be able to read the game’s moments: given their current standings, they’ll have a duty to win at all costs. Of course, we want to win too, but I want to see a mature team play, something we’ve lacked in many matches this year. We have a lot of young players, and at times we lacked experience. That’s why we’ll have to be good at reading the game, striking at the right time. If we play like Cagliari, doing what we’ve prepared, we’ll put in a strong performance.”

GAETANO’S RETURN, LITETA’S GROWTH
“Gaetano in midfield gives us quality like no other in the squad. It’s something that allows us to have better ball possession, it gives us more verticality. Liteta is growing, as the last two games have shown: he’s stopped important players like Bernabé and Nico Paz, but he plays the playmaker role with a different attitude. However, we always need to maintain a certain balance in our judgments, when managing a boy born in 2006 whom we are accompanying on a path of growth, towards a bright future. It’s possible that Joseph could start tomorrow during the match: his teammates know him by now and know they can count on him both as a starter and as a substitute.”

THE PLAYERS
Mina returned to the group yesterday, but in the previous days he had already started working with the team, as well as doing some separate training. He’s an experienced player, he knows himself very well: he’s done his training program, he knows how to manage, and tomorrow he can start from the start. Esposito will be missing due to suspension, which is a significant absence. Seba sacrifices a lot for the team, even going beyond what would normally be tactical instructions. He’s a player with technique and quality, and in Pisa we’ll miss what he can give us in the final thirty meters, his solutions. However, I’m happy that he’s found the way to scoring again; whoever plays in his place will do everything to ensure he doesn’t miss it. In the last match we tried to manage Kilicsoy, also in light of Esposito’s suspension. The match was at 3 p.m., so we need to manage resources, and he’s observing Ramadan. In the meantime, another week of adaptation has passed, more than 20 days since the start of Ramadan. Up front, we have few options: tomorrow Semih could start from the start, We know how much he cares about doing well. We hope he can help us bring home the three points.”

GALLEGO JOINS THE U20S, MANCOSU JOINS THE STAFF
“I bid farewell to Checco Pisano. It’s a shame, we all expected a very different outcome. I know how much he’s suffered because of this situation. I wish Alberto Gallego the best of luck, now leading the U20s; he has a mission to accomplish. He was on my staff, where Matteo Mancosu has now joined as an assistant. As for the coaches, we’re also fortunate to be able to recruit from our youth academy, where we have talented young men who are great human beings and have a strong connection to this team—something I look for.”

WITHOUT FANS FROM SARDINIA
We’ll miss the many fans who would have come from Sardinia. I’m deeply saddened. We also saw in Parma how important it is to have all our fans with us. Playing a match like this without everyone’s support is painful. Our fans follow us everywhere, making us feel their support. I struggle to understand how these barriers can still exist in 2026. We’ll play for our fans who can come to the stadium, for those who will follow us from home, from Sardinia and from all over the world, for those fans who would have wanted to be with us in Pisa tomorrow. We’ll try to make them proud of us with a solid performance, as a team that represents the people.