Marco Silvestri touched on all sorts of topics when he appeared as a guest on Monday's Udinese Tonight show.
Read on to find out what he had to say...
“Italy losing the World Cup play-off really hurt, especially as it came so unexpectedly. It's a real shame because as a team we deserved to go to the World Cup. But that's football for you. I hope to return to the Italy set-up – that's my dream.
“On a personal level, part of me thinks it's a good job I wasn't there because it must have been very difficult both before and after the game, but obviously I would have been very happy to go and proud to be a part of it.
“I think the current Italy squad is one of the best since 2006. There are lots of interesting young players too. Italy is about ten years behind other countries in terms of facilities and at youth level. Lots of things could be improved but it's not easy. Some clubs have improved in certain areas and are continuing to improve.
“I had no problem settling in here in Udine. The club helped me feel at home. I have two excellent goalkeeping coaches in [Alex] Brunner and [Sergio] Marcon. Udinese made a smart move bringing in Daniele Padelli alongside me. He's an excellent keeper and we get on well too. He's helping me a lot and is always very positive. The club really did everything to create the ideal conditions for me to perform well this season.
“There are different types of pressure. Daniele puts pressure on me in training. He gives 100% every day and that makes me understand that I must never stop pushing myself. There's another type of pressure which is more underhand and that's the worst type because it gets under your skin. Daniele is not like that.
“A good goalkeeper is not one who never makes a mistake but one who makes fewer mistakes. I had a coach who always used to say that it's human to make mistakes and you need a bit of luck to make mistakes the right way. This year, for example, I made a mistake against Sassuolo but luckily we won the game. I got really annoyed about it though because [Luca] Gotti never insisted I should always play the ball with my feet. He always said that if you feel confident to play the ball, do it. I could have done a thousand different things.
“I think Gotti is a great coach. He helped me a lot, and all the other players too, but I think we maybe needed something different. We needed someone to yell at us, push us more to the limit in training – things that Cioffi does. But I really believe that Gotti is an excellent coach.
“[Gabriele] Cioffi has given the team a very clear identity and I think you can see that. The difference with before is mainly mental. Also, lots of lads who had never played in Italy before have settled in now.
“We have some superb defenders here, real top-class players. I feel confident playing behind them.
“We know we have some tough months ahead and we know that if we want to secure our target as soon as possible there are certain teams we can't afford to lose against.
“In football, and especially in Italy, people tend to remember the end of the season. We must make sure we finish as well as possible. We have to keep doing what we're doing and the results will come.”