Kosta Runjaic held a press conference on Saturday to discuss Monday's trip to high-flying Fiorentina. This is what he had to say:
“On Monday we'll be up against a side with a real quality, especially in attack. They press high and deserve to be in the position they're in. We're coming off the back of two high-intensity performances against Inter and Napoli when we played well in spells but also had some more difficult moments we need to work on. We need to cut down the mistakes and become more mature. If you fall behind to teams like this, it's difficult to come back. We've spoken together as a team and we're working on the mistakes.
“Today is our second training session after the game in Milan. We had a normal session with a small group of players then we did recovery work with those who played. Tomorrow will be an important training session with everyone together and we'll work on our game plan for Fiorentina and try to prepare for the match as best we can.
“[Alexis] Sanchez knows how important it is to be in the best shape possible and he's not 100% at the moment. He needs to play and to train. He's a very important player for us and it was good for him to make his debut and put in a decent performance. Now he needs consistency. We need to work with him to get him back to the player we all know. If we can do that, we'll all be happy.
“[Sandi] Lovric trained with the small group today. He still feels a bit of a niggle and we're working with him. We'll decide what's best for him and for us, and tomorrow will be important in that sense. The other injured players definitely won't be available. [Martin] Payero should resume full training next week and we hope to have [Keinan] Davis back as soon as possible.
“If you look at our training sessions you can see we're improving. We're not one of the top teams looking to win the league. There are other sides capable of producing huge performances game in game out. Any mistakes against teams like that are fatal. How do we cut out those mistakes? By training, talking, watching videos and getting to know each other better. Then we'll see what the result is. Everyone makes mistakes. We have players with less experience who are developing and need time to raise their performance levels. Football is a complex game. I can't tell you what the cause of the mistakes is. We're giving our all and working hard. We've made both individual mistakes and collective mistakes. Against Atalanta we conceded the first goal when we were playing really well, and it was the same against Inter. We conceded from a pass misplaced by [Jurgen] Ekkelenkamp which shouldn't happen but unfortunately it did.
“We need to improve those things but it depends on the opposition too. Inter's goal was a result of the quality they have. We must keep working and growing. We've played well against the big teams and made it tough for them but didn't win. If you look at the stats, we ran a lot and put in a lot of effort. We were up against a top-quality side. We didn't field our academy team but we did have lots of youngsters like Iker Bravo, who put in a big shift. We need to improve the speed and quality, work on the negative aspects and reduce mistakes to the bare minimum.
“Rui Modesto worked really hard a against Inter. In a five-man midfield, the wide players are very important – they need intensity, they need to provide cover, run a lot, burst forward, put in crosses and chip in with goals too. Rui is not that young but he's only just come to Italy. We'll see when he's able to play consistently. He produced a decent showing in the cup game. He could have put in a couple of deliveries late on and play in [Jordan] Zemura. He wasn't able to but you have to look at the work done on a week-to-week basis too.
“[Arthur] Atta is improving a lot physically. He's a good lad and a well-rounded, quality player. We have to keep guiding him in his development. He did a great job against Napoli, with intensity, running and energy. He played well against Inter too. He still needs to settle into the team and improve but he's got all the makings of a great player.
“We have lots of youngsters who are settling in and giving their all and that's important. If you lose and you look at the data and see you've run less and haven't pressed or not held a high line, that would a bad sign but we're giving everything in every game and paying the price for our mistakes.
“We've often had to change things, especially in defence due to injuries and the different options we wanted to try. We're getting better. We're putting into practice the things we're working on in training – the result doesn't always show it but you can see the growth. We must believe in our playing philosophy and the results will come but we must cut down the mistakes. Against Inter we had a goalkeeper who'd never played with us and who hadn't played for a long time. We want to see the players playing, to show faith in them and help them develop. Inter are a top team with fantastic quality. We're not on the same level.
“We had lots of youngsters on the pitch – [James] Abankwah (2004), [Isaak] Toure (2003), [Edoardo] Piana (2003), [Damian] Pizarro (2005) and Bravo (2005). We showed courage and wanted to give them opportunities. When they make mistakes you have to remember their age. We also had a 16-year-old on the bench, Matteo Palma, who unfortunately didn't get the chance to come on but he's improving a lot. We're not trying to win the league but need more stability. That's the difference with the top sides. We must try to get better with every game. We need to do even more.”
“[Florian] Thauvin is a key player for us. He's a quality player with a lot of experience who wins games. He's a leader for the team. He had an injury which set him back a bit. He worked hard to recover and in the last two matches we've seen the Florian from the start of the season, but we were up against a big team and weren't able to pick up any points. I'm happy to have him and I'm pleased with him.
“There were different expectations for Brenner but he got injured last year and had no consistency. It was a tough year for him. He started off well this season but hasn't been able to maintain that level. It's not easy to always be able to show what you're capable of. He does it in training but as a striker you need to be able to make a difference on the pitch and he's not doing that at the moment. He know we expect more from him and he expects more of himself. He's not happy with how he's performing. We'll see how things develop. We talk to him all the time but there's not just him. Everyone has their own playing style and we're interested in how everyone performs.
“Against Fiorentina we'll all need to work together to make it hard for them. They're a top-quality team with a lot of confidence up front especially and they play with a high press. We'll need to keep our shape, play around their pressing and win the duels. It's going to be intense. They lost to Atalanta and Bologna while we played well in Bergamo and got a point in Bologna. We have a chance. We must overcome our limits if we want to get points, which is the goal of course. Then we'll see how it goes.”