On the eve of Parma vs. Napoli, matchday 35 in Serie A TIM which kicks off at 19:30 CEST tomorrow at the Stadio Ennio Tardini, Coach Roberto D’Aversa had the following things to say about his side’s upcoming match while speaking to Parma Calcio 1913’s official website.
With one day left until the game against Napoli: do you think any of those carrying injuries will be ready in time for the game?
“Cornelius and Kucka won’t be playing.”
What’s been said in order to find the right motivation and get out of this spell?
“What I said to the guys was that we certainly can’t be happy with things right now, on the contrary, we ought to be pissed off with our recent results. I raised Sunday’s game against Sampdoria where we were playing one of the best first halves of football since I arrived here as a coach, then just minutes later in the second half we wound up in difficulty and started to be scared in our play. That cannot happen. What I tried to make them realise is that we all feel a bit down right now, but I have to assure them and show faith in them in order to make them think more about the positives than the negatives, which we’ve already lingered on for long enough. Besides, I think that regardless of results, you always have to consider what you’ve done well and what you’ve done badly. We’re the same team who’ve earned 40 points and who, up to a certain point, were making people talk about the Europa League. In tough times, we have to be united and compact, we have to come together and get out of this spell.”
How much of an influence, especially on morale, is the fact that you’ve all been in quarantine for the last ten days having?
“In terms of being separated from life or not, I can’t come up with anything while being locked away here. Already the prospect of returning home, of returning to normal life with my own family would provide just a moment of leisure and an escape from thinking about all of the negatives from this period. But we have to do well in spite of that. I think that we’re the only team doing this, that obviously makes you think and it’s affecting us mentally, but we can’t sit here thinking about that, making excuses about quarantine or the fact that we’re being forced to stay by ourselves. It’s clear that it would do us a lot of good mentally to take a break from this.”
Where and how can Parma hurt this Napoli side?
“We’ll have to do everything in order to come away with a positive result from tomorrow’s clash with Napoli, we’ll have to show intensity, quality and character. We’ll have to leave everything out there, without making any mistakes and while giving over 100%, because against such a strong team, our all might not be enough. The beauty of football is when everything seems certain, because then when you’re out on the pitch that can all be flipped on its head.”
(Photo Getty Images)
www.parmacalcio1913.com
Source: legaseriea.it