Kevin Bonifazi was a guest on Monday’s episode of Udinese Tonight. Read on to find out what he had to say:
“We find ourselves in a crucial week if we really want to enjoy the run-in. Reaching our target of 40 points in the next two games would be ideal for us to head into the final games of the league campaign with more freedom, but with the same desire to give more.
“I prepared well for the Vicenza game in the Coppa Italia. It might have seemed like an easy game on paper, but the reality is that you can’t take any game for granted. I’m pleased with how I’m doing. I’m happy because I keep improving. This is just the starting point and I want to keep achieving more and more.
“Pressure is part and parcel of this job. Finishing in the top half is a source of motivation and an ambition of ours, but it mustn’t become an obsession because you can’t just achieve something by talking about it. It takes time and hard work to get results because Serie A is a tough league. The game on Saturday shows that; it wasn’t easy to beat Crotone. We needed the win and we managed it. We’re now on 36 points and have a chance of reaching our target in the next few days. We’re all ambitious and we want to improve.
“We didn’t manage the defensive side of our game well for the first 20 minutes. Our back three was outnumbered and we gave the opposition too much space. Something wasn’t quite working, so I said to Nuytinck, ‘You have to tell me to push me up.’ I told De Paul to press the ball higher up the pitch, Molina pushed up to keep tabs on their mezzala and I took care of their number 5 who was getting further forward. They started to struggle when we got our structure right. That breathed new life into us and we managed to regain possession.
“I don’t want to talk about the refereeing. The last situation is clear. I was elbowed on my neck and I don’t understand how the referee didn’t give the foul. If it had led to a goal, VAR would’ve needed to intervene.
“Scoring goals is one of my targets. I know how helpful it can be to the team when defenders pitch in. The statistics in this area are incredible. We haven’t conceded any goals from corners, but we haven’t scored any either. We’ve been a bit unlucky. Our crossing hasn’t been quite right and we don’t always attack the ball as well as we could. I really hope the goal comes soon because it’s something I really want.
“Bram is a brilliant player and a top man. He’s approachable and we talk things over. If he makes a mistake, he apologises and if I make a mistake, I apologise. There’s no competition between us and you can see that out on the pitch because we help each other out.
“I watched the game between Cagliari and Parma, which was fantastic. We know that we’ll be up against an angry team that is full of desire, but they also know that we’re a solid and humble side. We’ll respect Cagliari and they’ll have to respect us.
“There’s talk about the possibility of the Super League, but it’s not the time for me to think about that. It’s certainly a scenario that I’ll have to throw myself into, but I don’t have any views on it at the
moment.
“Rodrigo is a fantastic guy on and the pitch. At the start, we tended to clash a lot because we often wanted to show our personalities, but then one day after an argument, we hugged each other and our relationship became smoother. He offers the team so much and he knows the club. He gives us very good advice and knows us very well. I’m very pleased to have him in our side as captain.
“We made a bad start to the season, with five defeats in our first six games. At the start of the second half of the season, we showed more consistency. We then suffered three defeats. We deserved to lose in Bergamo, but I don’t think that was the case in the other two games. We might lose games in Serie A, but we did put together a good run of positive results.”