PRESS ROOM | Pisacane presents Atalanta-Cagliari

Fabio Pisacane held a pre-match press conference for Atalanta vs. Cagliari: the Rossoblu coach spoke to the media in the press room at the Crai Sport Center before departing for Bergamo. The match is scheduled for Saturday at 8:45 PM at the New Balance Arena, live on Sky Sport and DAZN.

THE VICTORY AGAINST ROMA
“The victory gave us the three points we’d been missing for a long time. The boys deserved it for their dedication in training, which has never been lacking. It’s normal for enthusiasm to wane when you don’t win, even if you’re doing everything right. This prestigious and important win for the league table is the best response, giving us energy and enthusiasm.”

FOLORUNSHO GATE
“Michael was very disappointed. We spoke immediately after the match, and he immediately realized his mistake. He knows it wasn’t a nice gesture and apologized immediately. It doesn’t represent him and it doesn’t represent us. Folorunsho has always had respect for every single person here, everyone loves him, and he’s always behaved well. There’s no need to justify anything, but we also don’t want to condemn someone who is an incredible, genuine, and spontaneous guy—too much. He can only learn from this experience and draw a positive example for his professional and personal future. It wasn’t a pleasant spectacle to watch because everyone watches football, especially children and then future generations, and we need to know that what we do and say is seen, assimilated, and analyzed by so many people. We know that many things happen on the pitch and that sometimes things go too far, and we also know that there are often those who are smarter and cover their mouths.”

ALL TOGETHER
You can do well or not so well, but a win certainly puts everything right. Sometimes it even amplifies your performance, even if you’ve made several mistakes. In every game, the team has done what I’ve told them to do: I’m thinking of the performance against Como, against Juventus, and against Napoli in the Coppa Italia. I like to emphasize that the culprit—whenever something didn’t work or wasn’t right—has always been me; I’m the one who creates the strategies and provides the input. We need to be a united, humble family, a team with many young players because we believe in this, and therefore we can experience some lapses that need to be understood, analyzed, and corrected.

MINA’S CONDITION
“We’re evaluating Mina day by day. He’s still working on a personalized program, and we’ll see when he can return to the group. We can’t and don’t want to force anything: he’s had a terrible bruise, and in the past, when we’ve forced him, we’ve made mistakes and made the situation worse. We want to bring him back to the group only when he’s no longer in pain and can give us what he’s capable of.”

GOING TO BERGAMO
Football today is very intense and dynamic. Against Atalanta, it will be an important test: winning duels allows you to win, as happened last Sunday. Against Atalanta, it will also be crucial. Palladino’s Atalanta is a mix between Gasperini’s Atalanta and his own concept of football that he has been pursuing since he’s been coaching: a less exasperated man-to-man approach, a less thought-out build-up, but it’s still a strong team with many qualities in every department. Palladino has brought serenity and enthusiasm. Atalanta can do damage in open spaces. In Europe, tactics are less visible and there is perhaps more intensity, duels, and sudden turnarounds. In Italy, facing teams like Verona and, I hope, Cagliari, who make tactics their cornerstone to prevail even against the odds, being accurate and attentive to detail can give us advantages if we are good at implementing what we’ve prepared in the non-possession and possession phases. Against all teams that play in transition, you must not give up your flank and you need to work with your skills. Preventive marking. We prepared the match to put them in difficulty: preventative marking by our defenders can make the difference.”

GAETANO GROWING
“Gianluca has grown tremendously. When he’s been left out of the starting lineup, it’s only for technical reasons. I’m also enjoying his character: it’s not easy to be left out of the starting eleven. Today he understood that he has to take a step forward and accept decisions to determine when he’s called upon. I don’t know if he’ll start tomorrow, maybe next time, but in the meantime, he’s an asset to our quiver.”

PALESTRA AT ITS BEST, TOMORROW AGAINST “HIS” ATALANTA
“Palestra impressed me with his openness and humility. He was welcomed very well by the lads, and his integration was also facilitated by his performances. He needs to stay that way; he shouldn’t read what they write about him. Football deceives you, it makes you believe you’ve become who knows who, just as you shouldn’t get depressed when things aren’t going well. Marco needs to focus only on the pitch.”

TACTICAL SOLUTIONS
“I think 4-3-2-1 is the formation that best suits this team, and you’re unlikely to see anything different from here on out. We started well with that idea, then injuries and some of my technical choices changed the way we play. We don’t cling to excuses; we don’t want to do so now or in the future, nor have we done so in the past: it’s right to take criticism and responsibility. Since the Juventus match, we’ve moved towards a 4-3-2-1, or a 4-3-3 that becomes a 3-5-2 to defend based on Palestra’s position, which gives you options with his physical and technical characteristics.”

SQUAD WITH DIFFERENT OPTIONS
“The Coppa Italia match allowed us to use five players who hadn’t had much playing time until then. It made us realize we could also count on Rodriguez, who proved he deserved a starting spot after months of working with the group in a completely new environment for him. Many starters also played in the Cup, but it wasn’t exactly a massive rotation: the goal was to give those who weren’t playing a lot of time a chance and fight for qualification. We’ve been through some turbulent times without a win; the win against Roma certainly gave us a boost, but now we need to keep working to ensure those three points aren’t just isolated incidents.”