Rudi Garcia spoke to the media after Napoli’s 1-3 defeat to Udinese on Sunday. Forza Napoli Press provides a complete transcript of the press conference in English.
Sky – Difficult evening, you lost it, you lost it badly, perhaps you even lost a bit of those certainties that you were trying to put together and find that identity on which you were working, the team also seemed a bit confused in the performance. Can you perhaps help us to read it?
Garcia: No, in my opinion we struggled to build from the back, but yes we lacked the lucidity to find Victor who was often one v one. We will calmly analyze this bad result “in the cold” rather than in the heat [of the moment] because it was a bad evening for us in that we lacked a bit of energy. When your build-up game, your offensive game lacks a bit of fluidity, you have to, in my opinion, balance that with more aggression. When you only make four fouls while losing at home, something was really missing in the defensive phase, something more than determination and cazzima. I didn’t expect this. We have to improve this because the first half was complicated, we conceded the first goal which we must not concede, that goes without saying. Also,, because even under pressure from Fiorentina in the first half, we didn’t concede, but this first goal hurt us. Then we were able to come back right before the break on the penalty scored by Victor which, on a psychological level, was very important, very positive. We started the second [half] well, we had the chance to make it 2-1 but their goalkeeper made the save. Then we conceded this second goal which, in my opinion, hurt us because when you don’t have the determination, even unconsciously, the ball bounces the wrong way and that’s what happened on the second goal. So then we threw all our energy and the players from the bench to equalize, however we were not able to. The third goal, in my opinion, I don’t need to talk about. We pushed to come back and draw and we didn’t.
Repubblica – Napoli were back from four good performances, I’m also including Bologna even if you hadn’t won. Are you worried about tonight’s performance?
Garcia: No, I’m not worried. We’ll see, we’ll analyze why there was a lack of energy but yes, I expected a stronger reaction. We started the second half well and perhaps for 15 minutes we were much more the protagonists. We lost fewer balls compared to the first half, where we lost too many for a team of our quality. But I repeat, it can sometimes happen that you’re not as good, but you have to compensate with much more energy and much more aggression in all departments, the first line, midfield and then also even at the back. We cannot lose so many duels at home and only make four fouls by the end of a negative result.
Corriere della Sera – Coach, trying to go a little further, you have played 10 official matches, lost three – Lazio, Real Madrid and Fiorentina. The impression is that, when you play higher-level opponent’s you struggle. How can this situation be explained?
Garcia: We will see, the future will give us some answers. At the moment, we cannot say this because on Tuesday it wasn’t right to lose the match, a draw would have been a fair result. We won’t talk about that. So don’t be so categorical, let’s see in the future if you are right or wrong but I’m sure we will prove you wrong.
Il Roma – You would have heard the whistles of the fans, it’s only the third defeat. I ask you if, when you arrived in June, you expected these difficulties so soon, let’s say, because all in all we are still at the beginning of October.
Garcia: No, but the fans are right not to be happy when you lose at home in such an important match with equal points. When you are third, you want to stay third and put yourself in the top four by winning at home. We didn’t do it. We are all pissed off, the staff, the players, and fans are totally right. We expected to be better and we weren’t, so needs to be corrected immediately when we start again with a victory in Verona. The problem is that, since the beginning of the season, we haven’t been able to string together three consecutive league victories, and until we do, we will be in and out of the top four. And tonight, like I said, it was a bad day, a bad evening.
Pianeta Napoli – I’m sorry about the biscuits though I think we have to eat them.
Garcia: Of course you have them, unfortunately
I continue to see a long team when the opponent presses high. So I wanted to ask you if you can explain to us. These substitutions seemed a little bizarre to me. First you removed Anguissa for the injury. Raspadori came in, then as midfielder. Then, with Napoli needing to come back, you removed the league’s top scorer. This also seems like a strange substitution to me.
Garcia: But with the benefit of hindsight we can make all the winning substitutions of the match. However, when you lose Anguissa due to injury and you are losing 1-0, it seems logical to me to put in a more offensive player like Raspadori who can score goals. Then, on some occasions, we need to play the ball in front of the goal and, in my opinion, pass to two center forwards but lose the center of the field and lose the ball. Given that Fiorentina were good in midfield with quality players, Arthur, Bonaventura etc. etc. I chose not to lose the midfield, the ball, and to equalize. We had a great opportunity on a ball stolen by Khvicha and given to Raspa, but perhaps he was too unselfish, he looked for Cholito and in the end we missed this big chance to equalize. But overall, it was not a good evening for us and therefore I also obviously take responsibility for this defeat, but not for the changes, more for the whole.
Radio Sportiva – Regardless of the substitutions, my colleague anticipated the question I wanted to ask you. I often saw Olivera alternating with Zielu i.e. Zelinski seemed to play the left back and Olivera went forward. Was this a planned movement or did they move freely on the pitch because Olivera was often ahead and Zelinski was behind?
Garcia: No, when a player like Zielinski, even if none of my players played a great match tonight, but Zielu knows how to build the game, he must also come and take the ball from behind to organize these rotations on the right and on the left. Maybe we did it too often, I don’t know, I’ll watch the match again, but it’s something that happens and it’s part of our quality of building the game, even if tonight wasn’t our best match.
