Gabriele Cioffi tried to take the positives after Udinese were held to a goalless draw by Monza but was unable to hide his frustration at the result. The coach saw his side dominate the encounter, producing 20 shots on goal to the visitors' two -
“We're disappointed. The good thing is we've picked up a point but the flip side is we've dropped two. We played with a positive mindset, thanks in part to the fans who helped us.
“We wanted to win it, as always. In the first half we expected them to sit back and wait for us – that's why we opted for more ball players. We needed to take our chances better but it wasn't a lack of determination – we were just a few centimetres away from scoring.”
Cioffi then reflected on the changes made in the second half, with Roberto Pereyra the first to come off early and Brenner making another late substitute appearance.
“The Pereyra change messed up our substitutions a bit, although [Kingsley] Ehizibue ensures solidity. If we'd been able to move Pereyra in behind the striker, we could have created more opportunities. We lost a bit of intensity when he went off.
“Brenner doesn't have 30 minutes at full strength in him yet and I couldn't see two big strikers working for us. The substitutes did well but sadly they didn't bear fruit as we'd hoped.”
Lautaro Giannetti meanwhile made his full Serie A debut in the starting line-up.
“He reads the game superbly and brings solidity and balance to the team. It was his first game in Europe – he needs to keep it up.”