Kosta Runjaic held a press conference on Thursday ahead of Udinese's home game against AC Milan on Friday evening. This is what he had to say:
“Football is a game of fine details. Sometimes you score first and it changes the match. Sometimes you make mistakes. Sometimes your opponents deserve to win. We know how important the small details are and it's something we're working on. No one is happy with our recent results because football is a results business. Maybe if we'd drawn against Verona and Genoa we'd see things differently but instead we've lost three in a row.
“Tomorrow will be an interesting, intense match. We want to give it our all and we've prepared well for it. We do miss [Florian] Thauvin. He's one of the players with the most quality in Serie A and we only have one Thauvin so him playing or not playing makes a difference. We're missing others too, like [Keinan] Davis and [Jordan] Zemura. It's something to consider but it doesn't matter tomorrow. We'll go out there with the players we have and if someone is not available we have other players ready.
“We haven''t always been able to perform at our best and in our last few games we've haven't got results because of those fine details. Tomorrow we have another opportunity and we need to get a good result even without the missing players. If we make the most of our quality, we can give Milan a game. They struggled against Fiorentina but then they showed their quality. We can compete with them. We'll be playing in front of our fans. We're happy about that and we're ready to go out and play with real motivation.
“Rui Modesto is working well and improving. He's very diligent. I don't want to share all my thoughts with you but he's a player who's improved and built up confidence. He's adapted to Serie A and is a potential starter, but ultimately it's my call to make. He's doing well in training and in games. I'm happy for any player who improves as much as he has.
“We're always considering different alternatives. We're trying to be positive and we've focused on what went well against Genoa. We had some good spells.
“I have faith in [Lorenzo] Lucca. He's a very good player and he's made progress not just in the number of goals he's scored but also in his attitude on the pitch. He had some good chances to score against Inter and Genoa but you can't always put them away. He has our full confidence and it's important to back him now but we also need to give him feedback, as we did after the Genoa game. I'd rather have a striker who creates chances and misses than one who doesn't get any chances at all. We just have to wait for him to start scoring again. If he starts the game tomorrow and does better in the duels and focuses, he'll get other chances to score. He could even score two or three, why not?
“He and Thauvin are great players and we believe in them but we have to look at other ways of obtaining results. We don't have ten players scoring regularly. We expect more in terms of goals and assists from players in other positions and we're working on that. We're working on lots of little details to improve our results. Now we need to show it in matches.
“If [Oumar] Solet hadn't been 100% fit, he wouldn't have played against Genoa. He knows he didn't perform at his usual level. He's produced some exceptional performances since joining us and that's the level we expect from him. There were moments in the Genoa game where he didn't show his usual class and he knows he could have done better. Tomorrow we're up against one of the teams with the best individual quality in Serie A so he'll have the chance to impose himself again.
“We have to remember that [Simone] Pafundi came back from the Swiss league in January and he needs time to adapt to the pace of Serie A. He's very good, a quality player. I spoke to him from the start and he'll get better with each game and with each season. He'll definitely play some of the match tomorrow – probably not from the start but it could more than the last few games. It's all part of his development – taking one step at a time – but that doesn't mean he can't start a match before the end of the season. I don't see him as a forward at the moment but as an attacking midfielder, although at this level everyone needs to be able to defend and attack. Like all the others, he needs to respect the development process and show he can perform well. I'm happy with him. He has great talent and character and he can develop into a top player. He's not shy but he hasn't yet fully grasped what his potential is. You can see he's very mature by the way he behaves on the pitch and in training. I have big expectations of him and I hope he can display his qualities against Milan tomorrow.
“Thauvin and Davis are getting better. They could be available again for the Torino match but we don't know at the moment. As for [Damian] Pizarro and Brenner, I make the decisions there. They're continuing to work and they're different situations. We could see one of the two on the pitch.
“Iker Bravo will certainly get an opportunity – we'll see for how long. He didn't have his best game against Genoa – he did some things well and others less well – but he's 20 years old and has huge potential. We have several players like that and we expect a certain performance level from them. He wasn't able to maintain that against Genoa – he lost the ball too many times. However, he's young and needs to grow. It's quite normal to have ups and downs.We're working with him and he understands – he was very critical of his own performance. Now we need to focus on the coming games and doing our best. Serie A is a tough league and every bad performance is highlighted, whereas in other leagues it sometimes slips under the radar. In any case, the players need to perform well regardless of their age because what happens on the pitch is all that matters.
“[Arthur] Atta alongside Lucca is a possibility. He's a young player and we try out different things with youngsters. He can do well in different positions. He likes to get on the ball and he's got a good engine. He could operate as a second striker and that's something we're considering regardless of the playing system. We don't see why he can't play there. He has a different skill set to Bravo and Pizarro and he's older than them but he needs to increase his goal presence. If Lucca had scored, he would have got a fantastic assist against Genoa. He could start tomorrow. He can't wait to play and neither can I.
“We have nothing to lose and we want to win this game. Milan are a top-quality side but they're also an example of how sometimes quality doesn't live up to expectations. We've had some highs and lows, more in our results than in our performances, but we want a big performance tomorrow. We have to be able to measure up to these teams. We want to match them and even better them.”