Gasperini’s comments after winning against Rangers

Here’s what our coach had to say.

Coach, the aim was to score and win again. Did you manage to achieve it with convincing enough control over the game?

“I’d say so, yes. Of course, winning in places like these is never easy because there’s always a lot of energy, and in any case, these are teams that from a physical point of view are always very challenging to play against. We’ve had another good match tonight – we had a good phase at a technical level – and we certainly performed well. We had some problems at the start of the second half, but that’s perfectly normal in matches like this one.”

Lorenzo Pellegrini said: “We are working a lot on communication,” referring to the players of the front three. What do you think he meant?

“Of course it’s important for the attack to be united too, because attacking isn’t about individual play: our second goal was a good example of all three forwards being involved. If you boost your confidence by scoring this type of goal, you will definitely score more afterwards.” 

“What are you most satisfied with, and where do you think this team still need to improve? As far as I can tell, the team have reached the right level physically, you circulate the ball very well and you’re improving your finishing. I think you’re making progress, but I’d like to hear that from you. 

“I too believe that we’ve grown in terms of performance levels, even though this doesn’t always translate into getting results. At the start of the season we got some results, and maybe we did so with less convincing performances.

“I believe that one’s performance is what boosts confidence. And this also applies to our latest losses against Inter or Milan.

“Sometimes you need certain losses more than you need certain wins. It’s not a cliche; it’s true. And we are certainly playing better, which also helps us create more goal-scoring opportunities.”

How did Artem Dovbyk perform? Is he growing?

“I think he is. His athletic and physical condition has certainly improved. He’s also involved in the goals. He did so tonight too in our second goal by holding and playing the ball well. He came close to scoring several times. When a forward takes a shot to the goal and gets into a scoring position, he will eventually score. But overall, he’s a player who is in much better condition compared to the start of the season.” 

Left-footers never shoot with their right, do they?

[Gasperini laughs] “It’s very hard for a left-footed player to shoot with his right and for a right-footed player to shoot with his left. We have plenty of players like that.

“We’re also struggling with the absence in our attack of three players at the same time: [Leon] Bailey, [Evan] Ferguson and [Paulo] Dybala. We have a match against Udinese coming up, then there’s the break. We hope we can conclude this phase well – which would be crucial – and then recover a few players too.”