Kosta Runjaic held a media conference on Friday ahead of Sunday's visit of Monza. This is what he had to say:
“It's an opportunity for us to maintain up our current form. Monza are bottom of the league and the target must be to win but it's easier said than done. They won't be coming here to roll over. We've seen their matches and they play nice football. They'll want to leave a good impression too. We must be solid and determined no matter who our opponents are.
"We want to produce a great performance to thank our fans for always getting behind us. We want to celebrate with them by playing with intensity.
The coach provided an update on his attacking options.
“[Lorenzo] Lucca is available for selection but we'll see how long he can play.
“[Florian] Thauvin is not training with the team again yet. He's having treatment twice a day and following a personalised programme. He's getting better but he's not ready to train with the group or play a match. That's how it us unfortunately. We have two games left after Monza and he might be able to make it. We'll see how he recovers. He's a very important player for us and we're in the position we're in thanks to him and the team.
“[Keinan] Davis is getting better and Lucca is recovering so we'll have more options, especially with [Kingsley] Ehizibue and [Martin] Payero returning as well.
“All the players are important even if they don't play the same amount of time.”
Quizzed about his future, Runjaic replied: “I've only just started here. We've had a very good year but it's not finished yet and we need to finish it well. We've achieved our initial target – which was staying up – and we've never been below 12th in the table, which I think is a good sign. I have another year left on my contract and we'll see at the end of the season but I'd be happy to stay and that's all there is to say.
“The focus shouldn't be on me but on the players. Nothing is more important than the next three matches. I hope you can see from the way I behave that I'm happy here. I was welcomed really well by the club, by a city with a beautiful old town and by Gokhan Inler, who has done so much to bring the team and the fans closer together. We want to work in unison with the fans because Udinese has a strong identity.
“I'm happy in Serie A, although it's a very difficult league. In the smaller clubs you have to manage resources well and have lots of discussions within the club to adapt to the different challenges week by week and respond to them. I have my idea about how the season went and we've spoke internally about certain aspects for the next season. The aim is to achieve even better results next year. Every year is a fresh challenge and throughout its history Udinese has always been able to deal with them.
Commenting on Udinese's 17 different goalscorers in the league this season, the coach continued: “We have lots of players who can score goals but opposition teams defend very well in Serie A. I'm not happy with the number of goals we've scored because we've wasted lots of chances but I'm pleased that so many different players have scored. We need to work on the small details.”