“Yes, very tough, but it’s what I said before, I don’t change my opinion, it is how it is. So, daily work, focus, raising in all things we need to do, physical condition, mental confidence, performance and waiting for the players to come back. So, we need to be focused on us, what we can do, less thinking about others, that’s always good and it will be good.
“Probably yes, probably yes [the job is more difficult than expecTudted]. I agree with you.”
“I don’t think too much about the draw. If you ask me whether I expect the draw tomorrow, it won’t change for me nothing. In the moment we are, we can also discuss about what you said, but in other ways, it’s a difficult competition to play, everyone wants to play.
“So, the problem is the lack of numbers of players, the amount of players we have in the team, that is the problem. Because if you need to play every three days with 10, 12, 13 and then you get, you know, that’s the problem. Not that we play in the Champions League or not.
“Also, it’s not about only spending physical energy but also mental energy, every game for us in the league, it’s a final. So, it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s how it is.”
“I don’t know [about the formation]. I don’t know because we are going to see when they (Porro and Danso) are back, how they are back, what are the other players. So, this is work to recognize what this team can do. You know, because when you start to work, you start, but then it’s a game to show you how is the real situation of the team.
“You know, in a physical condition, because it’s fantastic to go to press up and that’s when I speak about style. That’s also one part of the style, how you want to be without the ball. But then, if you have too much problems (at the) back, you need to think about the style. Is it the right style? Is it the right way, you can call it how you want.
“So, I need to be smart to understand deeper the moment and the way how to take the points. Even not looking to the style now at this moment. The style needs to be in the second moment, because now it’s a question of life and death, if I can say that in that way, sportingly. You can use that term.”
“No, I never used [the word relegation], but not because it’s something too scary, or it’s a danger word, or we won’t sleep. It’s about that we need to refocus on ourselves. I also see the same way I speak with my players. To be focused on ourselves, on the training. That’s the only thing we can change. So there is nothing to think about. The future, or the points, even. The points come as a consequence of the training and the game. That’s the focus. That’s the main and only focus we need to have.”
“Yeah, [the press officer] show me now so it’s a video from one fan yeah? So, I usually need to comment on the fan’s video? I saw that, but it was not an instruction to Micky, it was an instruction to the team to go up. It was about the team coming up and what we were speaking before. We want to go up because we want to have this style where we press high, but in this moment it’s too much for them, so that’s why I was a little frustrated on that, but this is part of it.
“If you watch carefully now, you see that I don’t speak with him because after that one advice, I said to him, come closer and he came closer. In that moment, I stood there like this, it was all for the defense to go up. We didn’t even speak about this me and Micky because there was nothing to speak about. He’s a fantastic guy, a very good professional and he would never do these things.”