This week's guest on Udinese Tonight was Iker Bravo. The youngster spoke about his early substitute appearance at Lecce, his relationship Runjaic and his time in two of the world's best academies, among other things.
“I'm delighted with this spell we're going through and I'm happy here in general,” the Spaniard began on the Monday evening show.
“I had some difficulties at the start of the season but I've got into my groove now. I'm happy with my playing time and the fact that I'm helping the team.”
The big talking point at the weekend was Lorenzo Lucca's match-winning penalty in Lecce and Bravo offered his own take on the matter.
“You always have hierarchies in a team which are established by the captain or the coach. I don't think what happened is anything serious. Lucca is a striker and he's our top scorer. He felt confident and wanted to take the penalty. At the end of the day he scored and we won thanks to his goal. From the outside it might have looked ugly and tense but after the match we were all happy with the win, which came about thanks to his goal.”
As it turned out, Lucca's substitution in Lecce saw Iker Bravo enter the fray before half time.
“Coming on at that time was nothing special. I just want to play, enjoy myself and show what I can do in the time I've given. I think I played well.
“I spoke to Lucca – we have a special relationship. I think he was sorry about the situation but his job is to score goals. He took the ball and scored. Obviously he'll need to clear things up with [Florian] Thauvin and everyone else before the Parma game. We haven't had the chance yet because we were given two days off [speaking on Monday].
Kosta Runjaic has shown faith in Bravo and been a positive influence on the talented youngster.
“The coach talks to me a lot. He knows what I can give the team and he believes in me. We all know Thauvin, [Alexis] Sanchez and Lucca are ahead of me in the pecking order but the boss says I need to be patient and enjoy the process. After all, I'm still only 20.”
What kind of player does Iker Bravo?
“I feel I'm a No.10 like [Francesco] Totti. I think I?m similar to him and Kaka. But I've only played 300 minutes this season and I still have a lot to prove. So far you've only seen 30% of me. I've always had a lot of belief in myself – I got this battling spirit from my mum.”
300 minutes and two goals – curiously both of which against the same team, on separate occasions.
“I've only scored against Venezia – they must think I hate them! Now I want to score against other teams. The goal against Venezia at home felt liberating. I needed to score in front of our fans. I want to help the team but I can't perform miracles in 20 minutes, so that goal was a weight off my shoulders. I'm ambitious. I want to score goals and help the team.”