Following the home defeat against Atalanta, Sporting Director Igli Tare also spoke to Dazn‘s microphones.
«Looking at the last few matches, the right focus has been missing – there’s no point hiding it. We all need to take responsibility. The fans deserve a better team. But the one good thing right now is that our destiny is still in our hands, so we must take what happened in the last half hour seriously. We need to carefully analyse everything that happened tonight, but above all what has happened over the last 6/7 weeks, and we must focus on reaching this important milestone, because we come from 10 very good months, and for almost a month and a half now we have been a bit off key.»
Tare’s Future: No Signals from the Club
He was then asked about his future and the possible questioning of his role.
«Honestly, I have received no signals from the club. I am totally focused on the work, because if we reach the objective we set at the beginning of the season, we will have done a great job. Everything else is part of our profession – all the speculation – but if you are at this level, you also need to be able to handle all the pressure around you, and for that reason it’s not important to me. What matters to me is what we need to do, and keeping calm and the right mindset to face the last 2 matches.»
On the Fans’ Protests
On the ongoing protests, he expressed himself as follows:
«The fans have the right to protest. Right now, I see it more as a mental issue – the team is not at ease, it has lost some of the composure we had in previous months, and above all the fact that since we dropped out of the race for first place, the gap to the others has taken something away from us. But that’s why I was saying at the start of the interview that it’s crucial to keep a cool head now. We have to accept the criticism that is justified, but at the same time we need to know how to react, because in these 2 matches we must try to reach this goal, which takes us a step forward for the future.»
The Training Camp Hypothesis to Regain Unity
The final question concerned what needs to be done to protect the team during this difficult period, opening up to the concrete possibility of a training retreat.
«We analysed the situation together with the staff, also a bit after the match. Right now, we spoke in front of them telling them that everything swirling around us must give us energy, but we all need to be focused on these 2 matches, because the reaction in the dressing room after the match – from everyone, from the team’s leaders – was the right one. Now we have to move from words to actions, and next Sunday we have an important match and we have to try to approach it in the right way, perhaps even going into a training retreat a few days early all together, and carefully analyse everything needed to achieve what we want.»
