Udinese Coach Stefano Colantuono admits his team is 'short of a few points' and looks forward to the game against Genoa: 'They deserve huge respect'.
The Zebrette enjoyed a deceptive start to the season as they beat reigning champions Juventus 1-0, but have gathered only another three points in the five games since then. Currently they sit at thirteenth in the standings.
“The distances in the standings are short,” he admitted to the Press. “We're short of a few points, but in the end everything will be balanced.
Udinese Coach Stefano Colantuono admits his team is 'short of a few points' and looks forward to the game against Genoa: 'They deserve huge respect'.
The Zebrette enjoyed a deceptive start to the season as they beat reigning champions Juventus 1-0, but have gathered only another three points in the five games since then. Currently they sit at thirteenth in the standings.
“The distances in the standings are short,” he admitted to the Press. “We're short of a few points, but in the end everything will be balanced.
“Now let's think about Genoa. We have to play rationally, conscious that we want to reward our supporters.
“At Bologna we changed something from a tactical point of view but I do these things myself, I don't let anyone dictate me.
“On the back of the second half against Milan [when Udinese almost came back from 3-0 and made it 3-2], I thought we were going to be able to follow up.
“I didn't want to make excuses, I tried to build on those 45 minutes. I started that way, I had some doubts that I cleared right away, but nobody imposed that choice on me.”
Udinese will be playing today's game without Duvan Zapata, after he was ruled out of playing for four months.
“We can solve that problem by finding alternative solutions. I was the one who wanted Duvan, but we were playing without him last year. Let's start again from our own strikers.
“[Francesco] Lodi? So far [Manuel] Iturra has been playing with two in front of him, according to his characteristics. He's a player who meets and clashes against others.
“Lodi has quality, sense of timing and for this reason doesn't need to be in top condition to play. Obviously he has to give quality to our game, that's what we signed him for.
“Genoa are a team that deserve tremendous respect, they have a great Coach.
“They're skilled and they give no points of reference other than [Leonardo] Pavoletti. And they have [Diego] Perotti, who was great quality.”