Kosta Runjaic held a press conference on Friday ahead of Udinese's Serie A match away to Inter on Sunday.
Here's what he had to say:
“We've had a two-week break with part of the team away on international duty so the work has been less intense but we've still done what we needed to. We don't have many training sessions to prepare for the game against Inter as we didn't have everyone to work with – [Jordan] Zemura for example only got back yesterday.
“[Alexis] Sanchez picked up an injury with his national team. Obviously I'm not happy he got injured but I'm happy to have so many other players available.
“[Florian] Thauvin will need a bit more time. This week he tried a bit of running and work with the rest of the team. He seems to be doing well but we've decided to give him a bit more treatment. Hopefully he'll be back with us next week. He and Sanchez are the only two not available.
“We're preparing to face Inter and we know how they play. They're one of the best teams. They use the ball well but they'd good in transition and defensively too. They're experienced and they know how they want to play.
“Verona is in the past now. We didn't play that badly but we had some difficulties. We didn't create enough, play with enough intensity or offer enough of a threat up front. We've analysed the game and we know what we need to improve. We're growing but we know it will be a different sort of game. If we have 60% possession against Inter, it will mean something went wrong with their game.
“We want to improve generally by trying to keep the ball for longer, being more dangerous in attack and honing the understanding between our players. Against Verona we didn't take the risks we should have taken and we lost the game, yet we didn't play badly. We weren't good enough in the final third but it will be a different game against Inter as they'll have a lot of the ball. We want to perform well and make it hard for them and we mustn't make mistakes, as we did the last two times we've played them.
“Inter are very good from corners but they're strong all round. They're favourites but we'll go out there with right amount of enthusiasm and realism. We want to play the way we know we can. We're under no pressure. We want to produce a good performance as we have against other big teams and in the best-case scenario we'll come away with some points to show for it.
“[Oumar] Solet didn't train last week due to a niggle he felt during the Verona game but he's back in full training now and is available for selection. He can't wait to play against Inter. He's been a big help in making us solid defensively and he and [Jaka] Bijol form a good pairing. He can get better. We hope he can stay in form and maintain these performance levels – actually improve in certain areas. He's getting close to his goal, which is to play for a top-class team, like Inter. We're happy to have him here with us and Udinese is a great opportunity for him. But now we need to focus on the game.
“I don't think [Keinan] Davis can play 90 minutes yet but he'll be in the squad. He's already made several substitute appearances and we're working to get him back to the point where he can start games. He had an overload during the international break so he wasn't able to work fully and that tells us we need to manage his workload carefully. Based on the experience and the work of the last few months, we'll be able to manage him and he'll play more frequently. How many minutes he plays is not the only important thing – he also needs to be in good shape. We'll see how the situation evolves from week to week. He's not injured. He's been working with the team again for a few weeks now and he needs to get minutes under his belt. But we do need to make the right decisions to manage his fitness.
“I think [Thomas] Kristensen's main position is centre-back but as part of his development he's also played at full-back and gained important experience from playing there. He played well in that position against Napoli. Against Verona he didn't have a good first half but he's played less well for parts of the game at centre-back too. He's still young. We often talk to him about the importance of being more consistent if he wants to take his game to the next level. It's good that he played for Denmark U21s as it gave him more experience. We'll see depending on how we play if he starts and in what position. He needs to become more mature and consistent but we're happy with how he's developing and he can perform even better.
“We're looking at different options to make up for the absence of Thauvin and Sanchez. We have a few in mind but we need to see them in practice. I'm not going to give you any more information – it can be a surprise for you. The situation is we're missing to players but we have lots of options to replace them.
“Bravo is working well. He hasn't played much in recent weeks but he's had a good impact as a sub and he's often done well alongside Lucca. He's the sort of player who needs freedom on the pitch. He always gives his all and that's the most important thing. What I expect from him is that he steps up more in games because he always does well in training. Maybe he's a bit too emotional but it's normal – he's young and that's his character. He's in good shape and it would certainly do him good to play more. We'll see. We have nine matches left and we also need to try out different things with a view to next season. He's one of those who could get more playing time. He knows where he needs to improve. I'm happy with him but he can get better.
“[Razvan] Sava is training every day, doing a lot of work with his feet because he can't save yet but he's making progress with his recovery. His condition will improve slowly and, as we did with [Maduka] Okoye, we'll increase his workload. Hopefully he'll be available again before the end of the season.”