Collecchio, 8 November 2024 - Head Coach Fabio Pecchia shared his thoughts in a press conference ahead of the 12th game of the season against Venezia, in the Press Room at Mutti Training Centre, Collecchio.

WE NEED ENTHUSIASM IN THE TEAM

'In terms of our psychological state, I've always said that, this team needs enthusiasm to be able to express itself. It's clear that we need to understand the moment we find ourselves in. But we need to have a sense of maturity and responsibility as a group. The team have to think that in order to get results, we need to be enthusiastic. A team that needs enthusiasm, doesn't need to have a negative feeling within, I know this group very well and I know what it needs. It's clear that the game needs to be played, thinking only about what is happening on the pitch and not about the league table and the opponent we are up against. We shouldn't isolate the team, the team has to be responsible, understanding the moment that we are in, otherwise it seems like I'm talking about lightness, almost as if I am being superficial. No absolutely not, I'm talking about a lightness that we need to transport into the qualities of our game, onto what we need to do on the pitch, and then we need to be totally responsible for the moment, the situation and to win matches we need to go the extra mile. I feel the need to emphasise this, but it's an aspect that we're working on and something I will insist on because we need to impose this onto our work. We play each match for the three points. This is my third year here now, we'll have played more than 100 matches and on every pitch, in any case I always ask for us to play for the three points, to play to win. The days in the lead up to match have been intense. The defeat hurt, but we have worked, continue to work and insist on doing our work. Always with enthusiasm, because this is how the games are played and we want to do so with enthusiasm'.

VENEZIA ARE IN GOOD FORM

'They're a team that are coming off the back off of a very big match, as well as the win against Udinese, but a great performance in Milan against Inter, therefore they're a team with intensity, quality and the desire to attack and get into the area with number. Apart from Osorio, who has just come back and will be out, we will have everyone including Anas. With Bernabé's absence I'm going to need a bit more from the group, but also and above all from the players that player in that part of the pitch. The same goes for Simon, who's playing really well and I am really happy with him, but he will need to take on a bit more responsibility, not just in a technical sense but in terms of moral and obviously a bit from Keita, Nahuel and Anas. It's a Venezia are in a really good bit of form, that have a good set-up but also a manager that wants to play with purpose and create chances. They're also a team that, besides a great physical structure, also have bags of physicality individually'.

THE WORK OF THE WIDE PLAYERS

'The full backs? In these matches I've seen good displays from Coulibaly who is able to play on the right and left as well as Hainaut, but also from Valeri. Gianluca (Di Chiara, nda) started a bit later than the rest of the group and is clearly someone who needs to play, so he is a bit further behind in terms of condition but I have always seen him as someone with great professionalism and reliability within the group, trying to show his contribution and be ready, he can give us a hand and I'm sure that he can be decisive whenever he is called upon. In the Torino match, I didn't see the boys in too much difficulty, but... against Genoa the match was a bit different. I have seen a big improvement from Benek, and then great contributions form Almqvist and Cancellieri, because it's clear that when it comes to the wide players, as you know, I ask a lot of them, therefore, I want even more, I have to push them because we need wide players who can work, work in defence but also show their qualities in attack'.

L’ASSENZA DI BERNABÉ E LA FORZA DEL GRUPPO

BERNABÉ'S ABSENCE AND THE STRENGTH OF THE GROUP

'It's always a shame when I lose players, just like when we lost Kowalski, another very young player, but its obviously a big disappointment to lose Adrian, we've lost someone who has been really important. We've obviously taken a bit of time to understand this loss and reorganise ourselves, I was impressed with Anas' contribution because he created chances and pushed us on. But, as I said before about thinking about Bernabé or without Bernabé, Bernabé isn't there, instead there is a group that is working and we must keep working and I repeat that, at this time more so, I have to highlight the fact that we have a wide base of players. At this moment in time, even more, in expect more assumption, a position in which the role of leadership is even stronger given the position on the pitch that they play in, we have to show the characteristics we have as a group. I will look for this obviously in the next two days but for now we have to prepare for a match and then we can look at the way forward, but for now we have to highlight the characteristics of each player. It's clear that our line, our playing identity is quite obvious, clearly highlighting even more the characteristics of the players who will take to the pitch'.

SOHM'S CALL UP TO THE SWISS TEAM

'For me, its a great source of satisfaction, I'm really happy for Simon because he's worked a lot and I'm sure he will use this call-up as a starting point... This makes up part of my working group, but firstly there's the match against Venezia and then we will think about the international break'.

THE TREND OF INJURIES IN THE SERIE A

'I think that losing two players to ACL injuries is a case of bad luck, it's clear that our league is very demanding, it's different to what we were used to, I see this sort of thing happening in each team, there's a high number of injuries in every team, in every group, the rate is higher compared to last year, last year we saw a remarkably low number of injuries, I think we actually broke records, this is all part of the league that we are in'.