Luca Gotti reflected on the positives to take from his team's 1-0 win over Empoli – their final pre-season friendly before next Friday's season-opener against Ascoli in the Coppa Italia.
“It was obviously a 'warm-up' match as both teams were clearly heavy-legged and the tempo and intensity weren't particularly high, but there were spells when we played some good football.
“The main aim of these two friendlies was to give as much playing time as possible to as many players as possible ahead of our cup game. We wanted at least 15-16 players to get 90 minutes under their belts and some played more than that so we achieved our goal.
“We don't have any serious injury issues either and at this stage that's already a positive.”
The coach started with a 'lightweight' front pairing of Cristo Gonzalez and Ignacio Pussetto, and brought on new signing Lazar Samardzic in the second half after he impressed with two assists against Cjarlins Muzane on Friday.
“They're only 'lightweight' relatively speaking. They're both hard-working forwards and they complement each other. I've had them play together regularly these last 15-20 days and you can see they've struck up an understanding.
“Samardzic is a player who clearly has talent but he's very young.”
Finally, Gotti commented on the physical condition of his squad ahead of the Coppa Italia match against Ascoli.
“We have another week to hone a few things. [Rodrigo] Becao and [Roberto] Pereyra should recover in time to join the group of players that played these last two matches.
“I'll try to raise the bar and demand more from them fitness-wise, especially from those who are further ahead.
“I'd planned to give [Nahuel] Molina 45 minutes today but he said he wanted to play the full 90 and I ended up giving him 65. That's a good sign.”