PRESS ROOM | Nicola after Lecce-Cagliari
Thus Davide Nicola after Lecce-Cagliari 1-0 at the Via del Mare. The summary of the coach’s words to the reporters present.
THE MATCH
“I think even drawing today would have upset us, imagine losing. We created a lot, we were not skillful in materializing what we produced. The boys played the game they had to, with spirit and courage, too bad really for the many chances we didn’t take advantage of. That’s part of the job, I’m interested in the boys having that spirit. We restart from what we are doing that is not little, even today against an opponent that has physicality and pace, you did not see the difference of two more days of time for them, it is true that they were left in ten but beyond everything Cagliari produced a lot. That’s why the draw would have been tight for us, but this is the Serie A that doesn’t give you a break and doesn’t allow you mistakes. Right to be bitter but let’s move forward conscious of our work, with time and training we will fix what there is to fix. The break? We have 11 national teams so it’s not like you can work that much, but it will serve to focus on those who have recently arrived and those who have played less so far.
REGRET
‘The boys played an important game from the point of view of the production of the game, net of the many chances. Often the last pass and concreteness were missing, I was interested to see a mentality that continues to grow, of course you have to improve, because if you produce so much you must then score goals because that gives you the exact measure of your work. Attention to set pieces must be increased, attention to detail in general. I think coming to Lecce and creating today’s chances is not easy or obvious, also because they were blatant and not insignificant. It wasn’t easy and we did it, showing that we were in good shape and working well, we had chances even at 0-0, it was normal then in numerical superiority to have a closed team in front that wanted to restart. That’s why we need to improve in the ball circle and in the build-up. But surely today even a draw would have left us nervous and bitter. Better in the first half? When you have less space it becomes more difficult to play and find solutions, you have to be more skilful in dribbling without frenzy. We still had many chances to score, but in football what counts is what you turn in. In 11 vs 11 the development of the game of both teams is different and of a certain type, then in 11 vs 10 the game changes and we had to do it. We have to improve in the turn of the ball with quality to find outfielders and 1 vs 1 with personality and last pass ability. Maybe in the second half we created with less speed and fluidity, but we still created’.
FORWARD WORKING
‘I will never say that the opponent did not deserve the victory, certainly Cagliari did not deserve the defeat. We are so sorry for the chances we didn’t realise, it would have been interesting to see the match in the event of our goal at 0-0 like Zito’s crossbar. Zappa was cautioned and we needed to take no risks, integrating Palomino as soon as possible. There were two restarts also because we accepted the systematic one-on-one. On the changes, I think it’s normal during the match to try to change and do something different, especially if you have to recover. Gaetano? He arrived last night at the hotel, he’d been coming in for days without training, it’s risky to play a player you’ve never worked with, nor done any tests or investigated his condition. Putting him in would have been a gamble and a wrong message to the group as well, because we have a lot of good lads who work very well.
