Luca Gotti wants to see Udinese “playing as a team” against Ascoli, after five weeks of pre-season training where the onus was chiefly on individual fitness.
Read what the coach had to say ahead of Friday's Coppa Italia first-round match at Dacia Arena.
How's the team looking going into this first game and what do you want to see from them?
“We head into this match as most teams do at this stage of the season: we're a bit heavy-legged and our players have different levels of fitness because some have been training since the start of pre-season and others joined up later. Up until now the focus has been more on building up fitness than on tactics and technique. In our previous games it was often about getting minutes in the legs of individuals but starting tomorrow I hope to see us start playing more as a team.”
What sort of opponent are Ascoli and what are the difficulties of this match?
“Ascoli are a decent Serie B side and the difficulties lie in the fact that they'll be fresher and have nothing to lose. One thing's for sure: they won't have more desire to win than us.”
Can we expect to see Udinese playing a similar way to last season?
“We've said before that we'd like to change the way we play but at the moment the conditions aren't right for us to do so. For now we'll keep playing the way we have been.”
Roberto Pereyra and Rodrigo Becao rejoined the group this week. How are they doing?
“Pereyra only missed a few days and was back with the rest of the squad at the start of this week, so I don't think there's any issue there. Becao missed about 10 days of training and has only trained with the group once. They are two completely different situations.”
Gerard Deulofeu has been training more regularly with the others. Could he feature tomorrow?
“I think he's in pretty good shape. He's working hard but he's only returned to full training this week and hasn't played any games yet. We'll have to see how the match pans out and decide whether or not to use him.”
The fans will be back at the stadium How do you feel about that?
“I think this is the big positive we should be emphasising, together with the fact we're playing competitive football again. It's a fresh start with football getting back to where it should be – with the fans and all the emotion that comes with it.”