That performance flipped the usual script with a good first half and a poor second half, how do you explain that?
(Laughs) Yeah, it's strange because in the last period the question was why is the first half is poor and you wait until the second half to change the situation. Yeah, but I think that I have to analyse very well the game. If I have to compare this game with the game we played last season, I think we played much better today. The performance was good today because we played with personality, we created a lot of problems for Manchester City.
I remember very well last season that we played for a long period in our box to defend the result, then one, two, three counter-attacks. No, one counter attack and we started from the back, from the goalkeeper to build from the back and we scored the other two goals.
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Today we were really brave to press high and we scored two goals this way. I think last season we were a bit lucky and this season, today when the result was 2-2, we had a massive, massive chance to score.
I think if you go up again 3-2 I don't know how the result would have finished because the game changed totally under the mental aspect. Then if you ask me, compared to last season we are conceding a lot more goals. A lot, a lot. It's not good and to concede four goals in one half, the second half. This is the first time in my career that one of my teams has conceded so many goals. We have to continue to work and we have to continue to improve and try to do our best. We are really disappointed for the final result because we could deserve much more in the end.
There seem to be so many individual errors at the moment, is there any way you as a coach can help the team stop them?
Yeah but you know we are really disappointed because many times, you have try to justify the goals that we are conceding. For sure this is a period we are not so lucky because we are making many, many mistakes, many mistakes, but football is this.
Sometimes you have a positive performance. Sometimes you are in situations that are not so positive but we have to continue to work and believe in ourselves. As I said in the past, this type of game with more experience you never, never lose. You don't buy experience, (laughs) well you can buy experience. You can buy it, but you know very well that we have to buy experience step by step, year by year.
For this reason when I speak and I tell you we have just started the process to try to become competitive, it means that we are also working under this aspect because a team with experience never concedes four goals.
But one of your most experienced players, Ivan Perisic, made mistakes for three of the four goals?
Yeah but I don't like to go about the single player, but for sure when we concede four goals the first person responsible is the coach. Then the players because I don't put the mistakes on my players. The mistake first of all is mine because it means that maybe we have to work defensively more to be more compact, like the whole team not only the defenders because when concede a goal it means the whole team not only the defenders, the keeper or a single player.
What could your team have done better to prevent those goals?
The only way that we have to continue to do is to work. I repeat. About the performance also against Arsenal and today against Manchester City, the team is alive. It's a team that played football with personality and created chances. At the same time if we compare this season and last season we lost a bit of solidity defensively, because we are conceding a lot of goals.
If you can see the stats about the goals we conceded this season then you can see that we have conceded a lot of goals. We have continued to score goals but the difference is a big difference. We have to try to find more solidity but when you concede a goal the whole team has to defend much better.
After your experiences at other clubs, is this your most difficult season as a coach with the passing of your friends as well?
I think that we have to try to understand that we are talking about two different situations. For sure under the personal aspect it is a difficult season for what happened (with his friends passing away) but now this situation is not important. This situation is my personal situation and then will be the time to make the right decision for me, for the future, for my family, but this situation doesn't affect the work and doesn't affect the team. I'm really focused. About this aspect I'm an animal because I'm really focused.
For sure if you tell me about my previous experience with Inter, Chelsea and Juventus, but also with Siena and Bari, yeah these are different situations.
When you understand very well what is the situation you realise and then you go into it with more strength, you understand? It's logical if my expectations continues to be the same at Juventus and Inter, then maybe could be dangerous because my frustration could be big.
Instead I know what is my task in this situation and then I'm working very hard because I want to improve. I want to improve the team and the club with my vision, with my idea, with my suggestions. Then for sure we see. I'm totally into the new situation and know that my task is to be part of this process and try to, with a team in transition, to start to become solid and to build a solid foundation and try to build a team ready to fight to win.
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