Udinese captain Jesper Karlstrom and coach Kosta Runjaic gave a press conference following the team’s loss to Sassuolo.
Karlstrom: “I can’t explain what happened. We lost our focus; you don’t normally concede two goals in one minute. That’s what football is sometimes like, but it wasn’t a good performance. We too would like not to have these drops in intensity throughout our games; we work hard every day to prevent this from happening. It’s not a matter of stamina. It bothers us too, but I don’t have an explanation to offer to you. When we play with a back four, I often drop deep between the centre-backs, but it's not something I can do all the time. It just enables me to be on the ball more often and make it harder for the opponent to press us.”
Runjaic: “I believe that overall we dominated a hard-fought match. They defended well and showed great quality during transitions. We took the lead, but we could’ve been more decisive and done better in the final third, and been more confident when we were trying to double our lead. We lost focus after Sassuolo equalised; they were fast, took advantage of the situation and scored again. Those two goals could’ve been avoided, especially the first one. The second one was the result of a fast-paced move that I want to watch again. After conceding the second goal, we lacked something in the attack. Had we played and moved better, we could’ve scored. In the end we lost a game that we shouldn’t have lost.
“We could’ve made it 2-0 and it would’ve been a completely different game, but we didn’t apply enough pressure on Sassuolo. We tried but were unable to. Sassuolo’s wingers are great players; we should’ve defended better because you can’t leave players open and alone in the box. Today we played with a back four and it was the right decision, but regardless of the formation, things get hard if you lose individual battles on the flanks.
We did not do well as a team when we conceded. We had a major chance with Jordan Zemura. We looked at a few plays during half time; they sat deep and were very compact. You can only break down the defence with fast passes or a nice cross into the box, but we didn’t show enough quality in this respect.
We did not do well as a team when we conceded. We had a major chance with Jordan Zemura. We looked at a few plays during half time; they sat deep and were very compact. You can only break down the defence with fast passes or a nice cross into the box, but we didn’t show enough quality in this respect.
“We need to work on our solutions, recover energy and focus on our next match. We’re a mid-tier team and therefore have our highs and lows; we can win against top teams and lose to Sassuolo, who are a team with a small budget and a good squad. We create hurdles for ourselves that have nothing to do with the opponent. We have several young players. Today we realised what an impact not having [Keinan] Davis has on us; I don’t want to criticize [Vakoun] Bayo who was out due to an injury for a long time or [Adam] Buksa or [Nicolo] Zaniolo, who is not in top shape right now either. He played the whole 90 minutes even though that wasn’t the original plan.”
“We don’t have a squad where if some players are injured, all the others are at the same level. However, this is no excuse for conceding two goals. We lacked a bit of decisiveness. [Idrissa] Gueye did better today; he took a nice shot in the match. Players like him need time to settle in. We’ll discuss what needs to be improved and how to pick up as many points as possible with a clear head. I haven’t changed my mind: my aim is to reach 50 points. It may be a very ambitious goal considering that Udinese have failed to hit this mark over the past 12 years. We’ll work with a clear head to find the right solutions to give a better performance against Bologna.”