Udinese...

06-04-2012

Guidolin: “Barreto is ready”

It is the crucial moment of the season, but Francesco Guidolin appears to be serene and self-confident. The fundamental home match against Roberto Donadoni’s Parma being closer and closer, Udinese coach has held a press conference to report about his lads condition (“lads’ conditions”?) and to talk about the expectations on this season ending.

How is the squad doing? “Benatia is available and he’s been working well during the week. Unfortunately, we have experience (“we have experienced”?) some issues with Floro and Fabbrini, who will not be available tomorrow, so now we need to find an alternative solution. The squad is doing a good job, the lads are working hard and are both physically and athletically ready”.

Are you holding on to 3-5-1-1 or will you find other solutions? “Even if I had had Fabbrini and Floro, this is a moment to develop our 3-5-1-1 and sometimes we modify it, we have also tried a 3-4-1-2. It doesn’t depend only on the players, I would have used that even if they both were available” (“even if they were both available”?). Can we say that the next three matches are more important? “We’d better think of Parma, they defeated us 3 times out of 3, and focus on one opponent at a time as we’ve always done. We need to focus on tomorrow’s opponent and on a very difficult match to us (“for us”?). We’ll be taking stock of the situation tomorrow, after the match”.

Parma are facing Udinese as if it was a final since you left them. Is there something personal going on? “No, there isn’t, and we need to play the perfect match because we win only when we play the perfect match. We don’t mind how the opponent is coming to the appointment (dentist’s appointment?), we have to arrive at it in the best way. I left an extraordinary group in Parma, I think they want to win against us because there is a mutual esteem between us. It’s normal. When I was a player, I used to face my former coaches with grit to show them how I had matured. We have to do good (“do well”?), this is all that matters”.

What do you think of Roberto Donadoni’s squad?
“Parma are a good team under a management point (“from a management point of view”?) of view. Some of them have played an important championship with me in the first year after the promotion from the Serie B. We fought a lot together to conquer European cups, until February. Then we had a bad period during the Christmas break, but we were fifth at Christmas. I know some of them, and they are even stronger thanks to Giovinco, Paletta, Mariga and Floccari. It’s a beautiful team with important players, they are being coached well by Donadoni, who is an excellent coach, and since they aren’t safe yet, tomorrow is going to be tough, but we are ready. They deserved to win against Lazio, now the nervous aspect is fundamental. Physical strength, tactics are important, but what matters now is your motivation. We need to be at 110%”. Will Barreto give his contribution tomorrow?
“Barreto is ready, I think his time has come. From the kick-off? It might be, it’s an hypothesis I’m working on”.

What are you counting on to lift the morals (??) of the squad? “I think that our lads deserve a big applause, they are playing a beautiful season. I’ll never stop being proud of them, they are going through a delicate period, but my squad holds on and will come out of this championship using the last drop of sweat it has. We have the right to feel tired, we are the team that has played the highest number of matches alongside AC Milan, but we can’t feel tired and I do think we are not (“and I don’t think that we are”?). I’m not talking about scores but performances, because I know how they work and who they are trained by. I’m not referring to myself but to my collaborators, and I know that every detail is studied and prepared to try and put the group in the best possible condition to win. They don’t need to be cheered up, they need to win, but the win comes if you play the perfect match”.

Can Benatia’s return be fundamental “Of course. He’s one of the selected players and I hope he’ll be available tomorrow. As I said last Tuesday, from now on a coach can talk about good or bad luck only referring to his available players (“but only when he refers to his available players”?). A squad with all the players available (“with all the available players”?) is a good team with a bit of luck. Who doesn’t have all his squad available needs to make a virtue of necessity. Benatia played the Africa Cup and it literally destroyed him. It took him 20 days to recover, we won’t have Badu for the rest of the season and Asamoah is not feeling well. That’s why I’m saying that my players deserve an applause, because this has been an insidious, tricky, dangerous season. But this group has managed push (??) with all the strength it had for the first 5 months, entertaining the fans with great football and earning a splendid position. Now it’s the moment when results are not as expected, but we could see it coming, we couldn’t think this squad would have kept scoring two points per match for all the season. We are trying to get over this difficult moment all together, with pride and determination, we try to stay in the upper part of the table”.

Have you ever considered to move Di Natale from his first striker role, perhaps thanks to Barreto input (“Barreto’s input”?)?
“I’d love to see them together, because I think they speak the same language, the classic language of world-beaters. Under a tactical point of view they can swap roles, because they have similar qualities, features and class. I’m curious to see them together, I’ve never had the chance to test them and I don’t know if I can do it tomorrow. Even if Barreto is available, I cannot expect him to play impeccably for the whole match”.

Is Torje integrating more and more? “Gabriel is doing very good (“very well”?). He’s had his bad period, but it was normal for a boy coming from abroad. Everybody has suffered: Sanchez was not the same as last year when he first got here, as well as Isla and Asamoah. We need to give them the time to grow up, to understand, to learn, but I’ve seen him quite lively, smart and brilliant. He’s very different from the other striker”.