Kosta Runjaic faced the press ahead of Monday’s fixture against Como. Here’s what our boss had to say:
"I rarely give details out before games. I can't tell you yet who’ll play, especially whether [Alexis] Sanchez will see some action or not. We’re working on different options. What’s important is to have stability, regardless of the system we deploy.
“Como play really attacking football, given that they’re a newly promoted team. They always try to have a lot of the ball, they make a lot of short passes and press high. It’s a style usually seen with top-ranking teams, so we must congratulate them for that – they’ve got an idea in mind and have carefully put together a team of the right players to make it happen. We’re aware that they’re different compared to other new Serie A sides because of the resources they have available – they’re aiming to get to the top as soon as they can and maybe even fight for the title in the future. Tomorrow will see two teams face each other who’ve improved in recent months, who try to play proper football and who’ll try to impose their style of play on the game. We want to get points, but so do they. Como play with intensity and like to see a lot of the ball. We’ll try and dominate the game tomorrow.
“Who’ll play on the right? Definitely not Sanchez (laughs, ed.). We’re on top of this issue and we’ll discuss it today. [Rui] Modesto played well against Atalanta – he’s improving and settling in, but he’s got a way to go yet. He’s an option. However, we also have other options such as [Jordan] Zemura – he can play in different positions and also plays on the right for his national team. We’ve not given a lot of consideration to playing [Thomas] Kristensen as a full-back - we prefer him as a centre-back.
“The saying goes ‘never change a winning team’, but we didn’t beat Atalanta. We’re weighing up playing [Florian] Thauvin with Sanchez. They did well together in the last match, showing good understanding and played with intensity. Thauvin will definitely play tomorrow – he’s our captain, he’s in good shape and in the last match he worked hard for the team, causing problems for the opposition’s defence. It’s important for us to have him on the pitch. He’ll play, then tomorrow you’ll find out who’ll be up front with him.”
“[Maduka] Okoye? We haven’t talked about it - we’re focused on the next match. The news came out, it was discussed, but I’m a coach and I prefer to talk about football. The only thing that matters is to give the best account of ourselves in the next match and to try to win it. I’ve got nothing to say regarding other matters, to be honest.”