This week's featured player on Udinese Tonight was Oumar Solet. We talked about his impact on the team, his future, Udinese’s current situation and much more:
“[Regarding my positive impact], I don't feel like a superhero. I'm just very happy to have joined Udinese. The club showed faith in me right away and I was keen to repay them. The best career move I could have made would have been to join a big league, so when Udinese called me I didn’t think twice. I knew that I could offer a lot.
“Right now we’re not in good form, having lost the last three games, but we want to have Udinese's best season in a decade. Starting from the Milan game we’ll give our all to achieve this objective. We’re missing [Florian] Thauvin. He’s our captain but we’ve got other players who can make us do well. We need to be scoring more goals. It's something we work on every day - we want to improve in this department.
“[Regarding recent defeats], sometimes we’ve started the matches positively, other times less so. It also depends on the type of game and the opponent. Maybe it's a question of mentality. We need to be more focused from the start and know what we have to do right from the get-go. We're working on it.
"I've felt really good since I came to Italy, and things can only get better every passing season. Serie A is one of the two or three best leagues in the world, so I'm happy to be here. I hope I can do even more because it's a league where I can really thrive. I’m yet to face a striker who’s caused me a real headache. Perhaps the most difficult forwards to face are the very technical ones.
“To be a great player you have to be able to stay calm under pressure. It's a great characteristic to have because opponents are taken aback when they see that you’re so at ease on the pitch.
“When I was young I played in midfield - my idol was Ronaldinho. I only started playing as a defender when I was 17. I’d like to be more of a leader for the team and I’d also like to score more goals.
“To be honest, I don’t pay attention to the things that are said in the media. The most important thing for me is to play well and finish the season on a high. Of course, when you perform at a high level the top clubs start following you, but I’m focused on the short term.”