Emilio De Leo says the Coppa Italia tie with Udinese tomorrow will present an “opportunity for everyone” in his Bologna squad.
Bologna travel to Dacia Arena in the fourth round of Coppa Italia, and Sinisa Mihajlovic’s assistant confirmed he would be making changes.
“First of all, we must honour all our commitments,” he said at a press conference.
“There are players who have been working well since July and this is also an opportunity to make room for everyone.
Emilio De Leo says the Coppa Italia tie with Udinese tomorrow will present an “opportunity for everyone” in his Bologna squad.
Bologna travel to Dacia Arena in the fourth round of Coppa Italia, and Sinisa Mihajlovic’s assistant confirmed he would be making changes.
“First of all, we must honour all our commitments,” he said at a press conference.
“There are players who have been working well since July and this is also an opportunity to make room for everyone.
“However, we must keep continuity in our performance levels and build on the positive result from Naples.”
The Rossoblu beat Napoli in Serie A last weekend but continue with a cup game at a ground where they are on a run of four straight losses.
“It could be an objective, to redeem ourselves, but our reference is the last game.
“There will clearly be some things we will have to manage differently against the Friuli.”
Rodrigo Palacio has been playing as a lone striker since the 3-2 defeat to Cagliari on October 30 and, after four consecutive games, De Leo is hoping he will be able to rest the veteran.
“We are open to everything. Soon we will have our last training session and we will try something out. If Santander and Destro recover in time, we will be able to give Palacio some rest.”
He added Mihajlovic was impressed with the display at Napoli.
“Sinisa was happy that the team had become aware of the difficulties of the game, without being discouraged by them.
“We tweaked something at half-time and, by closing down the space, we were able to frustrate them.”
The Serb is back at the club after completing more leukaemia treatment, and De Leo assured it didn’t “surprise” him or his colleagues.
“Anyone who knows him well would know that he wouldn’t let anything discourage him.
“We were expecting a reaction from him, we were not surprised. Not even the great affection surprised us.
“The positive thing is the relationship that’s been created withthe players, club and environment.
“I don’t think it was taken for granted. We went beyond the love for a coach.”