Runjaic: “The team is ready to battle”

Kosta Runjaic spoke to the media on Sunday ahead of Monday’s match against Verona. Read his thoughts below.

 

“Zaniolo is irreplaceable for us. He’s a unique player who makes his mark on the pitch with his quality and strength, but at the moment he’s injured. We have other players and the whole team is ready to do battle. We need to play better than we did against Inter. We didn’t prepare for that game in the right way. Playing against Verona is not easy. We can’t underestimate them. If they’re on form, they can have their say. We expect to have more of the ball, so we need to play better in possession. It will be important to strike a balance with our defensive play, but we want to be able to get into their final third and score goals. We know what’s waiting for us. All we need to do now is get on the pitch.”

 

“We could play with an extra striker or with an attacking midfielder behind the striker. Both are possible solutions. The injury situation is what it is, but that’s part of football. We won’t have Zaniolo or [Jakub] Piotrowski. [Adam] Buksa will be out for a little longer. [Hassane] Kamara, who had a bit of discomfort yesterday, and [Rui] Modesto won’t travel to Verona. However, we have a team that is ready to fight. On the pitch the lads need to find space and make the right decisions. We have [Vakoun] Bayo and [Idrissa] Gueye up top and they have our trust. They could start. We can vary the formation and who we have on the pitch, but we need to bring our principles with discipline, energy and courage. We must approach the game with intensity and turn it in our favour.”

 

“It’s hard to explain the goals we concede. Each one is different. There are many things to consider when analysing our defence. We have a lot of younger players at the back who are still developing. We didn’t defend well against Lautaro [Martinez] for Inter’s goal, but we have to acknowledge his quality. We’ve made various individual mistakes this season. We’ve given away a lot of penalties but if we look at the statistics, it’s been like that for years for Udinese. Defence is only one part of the bigger picture and we’re working to improve. We want to defend high up the pitch and sometimes we give away too much space and get punished for it. I don’t want to change the way we play by dropping deep like we have done in the past. I don’t like that style of play. We’re growing but we’re still lacking that defensive stability, which also depends on how well the team is balanced. Against Inter, we played too many long balls and lost possession too many times. They’re also in great form at the moment and we have to recognise that. Tomorrow, we need to show that we’ve grown, play on the front foot, be dangerous and create a lot of chances, from set pieces too. We need to keep in mind that Verona are the most dangerous team on the counter. If we make mistakes in the build-up play, they’ll hit us with a quick counterattack, and we need to be prepared for that. We need to improve in 1v1 situations. If we do that well and don’t make individual mistakes, we will see improvements in defence.”

 

“[Jordan] Zemura has trained well and is ready to play. We also have [Nicolo] Bertola who we’ve seen play at left-back and [Kingsley] Ehizibue can adapt too. We have lots of options despite the absences. Kamara may be back for the next match but for now we’re focusing on Verona. Regardless of who plays, we need to give it our all and the team must work together as a unit.”