Potenza’s coach in the press room Pietro De Giorgio faces journalists’ questions after the goalless draw with Virtus Francavilla which condemned the rossoblu to the play outs with Monterosi Tuscia.
Incredibly the play outs and the choice of Steffè and the exit of Volpe… “I put Steffè because he came from a goal, he had helped us in the draw against Messina, who had given enthusiasm and esteem to the boy himself, then he attacked the penalty area well, I saw him on the ball all week, in training many cross and he entered the penalty area scoring many goals. As for the match we are all angry, disappointed, sorry mainly for the first half when we had four-five sensational balls, eight corners, shame about De Grazia’s incredible opportunity. We have to focus on all the players, the moment is delicate, when I accepted this challenge I knew the team was in a bad situation. The fear is there, you can see it, it’s noticeable even if the effort from the boys was there today. especially at the beginning of the match as we approached it. Then, we have this gap that we must fill immediately which is the second half where the team feels fear, tends to shut down, in the phrasing it was very slow, we need to speed up the maneuver and also on an individual level. it is necessary to give more. I put Volpe because I wanted a few more quality players to try to have numerical superiority in one-on-one situations, but we know that the boy hasn’t been well, he comes from a period where he had tonsillitis, high fever and took some drugs that bring you down and a player to recover.”
The worst scenario has materialized, how to face the play outs. “We didn’t look at the results or do calculations even if no result helped us, it’s time, when things go badly even the episode doesn’t help you, if you unlock it at the beginning we were talking about another match. We’re sorry, we can’t we were waiting for it but now it’s time to react, we have time to work and we will face the play out in the best way.”
Guilty and less guilty. “I’m just as guilty as the others, the moment I accepted the situation I also had to take responsibility, we didn’t expect this moment, the last few games went badly, even the results of both ours and those of the teams that were below us in the standings they were not favorable to us even with inadequate performances. Now we have to raise our heads, gain awareness, work well and go and play these play outs, there are these two matches that we have to play with our heads held high and with enthusiasm. We will unplug for a day and from Monday we will start again to face the play outs at high intensity, at high levels. Asencio and Schiattarella are two players who will have to give us a hand, they are important, with a history, who have an important career behind them. , they will also make a contribution, then I don’t know if they will be starters or not.”
A second half to forget. “The second half didn’t have the same attitude as the first twenty minutes, they dropped down, we struggled and didn’t take responsibility for making that important pass, we were slow in our maneuver, we didn’t create numerical superiority on the outside, we were naive when we tried to play second balls with long balls.”
The physical condition. “We will take advantage of these fifteen days to also work athletically because in the second half we have some drops, we have to recover some players who were not well, we will also improve our physical condition”.
Fear. “The fear is there, no one expected this epilogue because we have never been in the play outs and we are going to end up in the final of the championship, after the good approach fear prevailed. We have to work and I am here to save Potenza, that’s what I want to do and we’ve been working hard since Monday, I have great faith that we can save ourselves.”
