Spezia head coach Luca Gotti has paid compliment to AC Milan ahead of tomorrow night’s game at San Siro, insisting they have ‘many quality players’.
It has been a difficult start to the season for Gotti and for Spezia as they have won just two of their opening 12 games to start the new Serie A season and find themselves at the wrong end of the table. Not only that, but they are yet to pick up a single point or even score a goal away from home.
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Gotti spoke at his press conference on the eve of the game against the Italian champions in which the Ligurians will be looking to repeat last season’s result in the last game where they won 2-1 in controversial circumstances. His comments were relayed by TMW.
Are you happier with a Spezia who let in goals (against Fiorentina) trying to win, or more sorry for the defeat?
“I’m not ready to review the mentality, but I’m sorry. I haven’t absorbed the end of the game against Fiorentina yet, but I keep the desire that lasted the whole game: the spirit and that way of wanting to face it and we need to have a better reading of the moments.”
Is there any hangover after the defeat vs. Fiorentina?
“When you lose you are not used to it. You’re sick, I’m sick and the players are sick. The following days in the heat are days in which you have to re-tie threads that have melted and you have to fix something, dealing with ailments. You prepare for these three games in eight days, focusing on the fact that our season is made up of these three games, without thinking about anything else.”
Who has more to lose tomorrow?
“I can’t see games in general as someone who has something to lose. Every match is an opportunity, we know the degree of difficulty of Serie A matches, where nothing is taken for granted. We know how strong Milan are, the patch [Scudetto] they have on their shirt is a testament to that.”
How are Holm and Verde?
“Holm missed a couple of days of training because of that little problem he sustained against Fiorentina, but he has been training with the team for the last two days. Verde continues with his path, to try to find the best condition for Serie A matches.”
In view of the three games in eight days, could you change anything?
“It is a hypothesis. My idea and the concept that I want to guide us are the characteristics of the matches and the characteristics of my players. I want to use the squad as much as possible to ensure that we have our highest level in all matches.”
Milan plays on the counter, what attitude should you have?
“Milan have a lot of quality. They can handle games in several ways. They have the quality of dribbling, they have good players in the middle, on the attacking trident… They have quality players and a great work rate who use the spaces well. In certain areas of the pitch we will not have to allow spaces, we will have to face the match aware of these characteristics.”
Have the group fully assimilated your philosophy?
“I strongly hope that there is great room for improvement. I don’t know if you saw the AC Milan champions match, where Salzburg showed up with an average age of 21 and a half, first in the standings in Austria. You play a game with two teams with human-to-human references, on the whole field, and you can’t figure out what the game system is.
“There are concepts, but we cannot say what the system is, how they attack and how they defend. And this is the direction of European football, where the tactics change. Serie A is also changing, the physical characteristics of the players are changing, with more intensity.
“Against Fiorentina we also did not have a game system, but there are the principles with which you prepare the game. From that point of view, I say that we have necessarily improved but we have a path that must say to put the next row of bricks once the first has settled. There are many margins for improvement.”
