Coach Kosta Runjaic held a press conference ahead of Monday’s match against Lazio. Here is what he had to say.
Tomorrow’s match
“[Thomas] Kristensen is ready to play, as I hope the rest of the team are. We’re up against Lazio: they’ve reached the Coppa Italia final and have been performing well lately. They’ve been a tough opponent for the teams at the top of the table. They’re tactically well organised, they have a good coach and talented individual players. They play with courage, defend as a compact unit and are dangerous on counter-attacks. We must give it everything and be pro-active and avoid making mistakes because they are good at taking advantage of them. We won’t take this away match lightly: we have clear objectives and want to finish the season well.”
The opponent
“Lazio are good at counter-attacks. They have fast wingers and are good at individual duels. When they’re in possession they move fast and quickly find their forwards. They’re compact when defending; in a way it will be similar to our game against Parma. We must attack and defend well and avoid giving away any counter-attacks. It’ll be a tough match, as we’re up against one of the teams that are in the best form right now.”
Injured players
“[Jesper] Karlstrom and [Keinan] Davis are two important players and we have no direct replacements for them in the squad. Jesper is a source of stability and a leader, but we have alternatives, players who are looking forward to proving themselves. Davis’s absence is no excuse for us. We’ve been able to play well without him too, for example against Atalanta. Adam Buksa has another week of training under his belt and is ready. We also have [Vakoun] Bayo, [Idrissa] Gueye and [Nicolo] Zaniolo who can hurt our opponent. [Alessandro] Zanoli, [Jordan] Zemura and [Nicolo] Bertola will also not be available against Lazio.”
Miller
“I’m happy we have him. He’s talented, very young and has a good mentality. He just needs time to improve even more. I’m happy with what he’s done so far.”
Runjaic’s future
“I’ve never said that I wanted a meeting with the club. We will meet at the end of the season, which is perfectly normal, and we’ll take stock of the season. I still have one year left on my contract. I like it here. I work with very talented people and there’s a nice atmosphere. I don’t want to think about the future when we still have five matchdays left. Our shared objective is to reach the highest position possible in the table and that’s all that matters.”