Collecchio, 27 September 2020 – “Both teams are coming into this on the back of a defeat. There’s a lot of desire to improve on both sides. I’m expecting it to be a difficult game, such is the Italian top flight.” Coach Fabio Liverani summed up tomorrow’s game against Bologna on matchday 2 of the 2020/21 Serie A season. “I always expect there to be difficulties,” he continued, “but also a bit of progress form the squad. We’ll see what kind of game it is.”
It’s said that when the transfer window is still open, it can disrupt games: do you expect a reaction from the team, which could see a change or two in the coming days?
“I’m expecting there to be collective growth in how we interpret the game, on our way of playing, of being positive and a desire to always play. That’s the idea. There are smaller battles within a game, that’s what I always say. There’s the defensive phase, there’s there’s the phase of working out an opponent and there’s the chance to change the game. I expect there to be most growth in how we interpret the game.”
How’s Pezzella? Have you thought about an alternative?
“Pezzella’s back in training, the doubt we have is whether to move Darmian or have Giuseppe start.”
Gervinho is back: will he be able to start?
“We’re having most issues up top, both for fitness and minutes in the legs. They’re have the least minutes in this initial stage, between the training camp, international duty and friendlies. We’ll see how the game goes. Gervinho will play a part, we’ll see if he starts or comes on later.
Could this be a chance for Karamoh?
“I think that Karamoh has quality. Everyone expects him to grow and he needs to realise that. He’s a player that we all know has great ability, we want to see a bit more from him. He’ll probably get his chance too; if he doesn’t start, he’ll come off the bench.”
You’ve often said you prefer to play with four defenders, three midfielders and three attackers: have you got any surprises up your sleeve?
“I think we’ll be able to work on our main and secondary systems when the window closes on 5 October and we’ve got a complete squad with the right characteristics and players. Right now, there’s still work to be done. There’s work to be done both on numbers and structure. We need to stated that there have been problems. I understand that we’re playing games and we all want results, but we need time to build something.”
