Turati: “I'm wary of everything about Vis Pesaro—we'll need our fans' support”

Ahead of the match against Vis Pesaro, here’s what coach Marco Turati had to say: “I think the team showed a bit more in Perugia—both physically and technically—but also in terms of focus compared to the match against Livorno. We were up against a strong team that had performed very well in the previous weeks and had key players on their roster, so my satisfaction after the game was definitely due to the fact that we played an excellent match against a tough opponent.

I never make pre-planned substitutions, so I’ll always continue to make my choices based on the players’ condition and the opponents’ characteristics; of course, there’s always the issue of injuries to consider—for example, Limonelli, who took a nasty hit that wasn’t even penalized—but we’ll see today how he’s doing, and if he trains, he’ll definitely be in the game. In both Carmelo and Jimenez—who replaced him at halftime in Perugia—I saw that determination in their eyes that I always look for in my players, so whoever plays, I’m sure they’ll step up and give their all for the good of the team.

The important game for us is Monday’s. We’re not thinking about anything else. We know the opponent we’re facing. We know how it feels to be at the bottom of the standings and how desperate our opponents will be for redemption. The fans will once again be crucial for us—we mustn’t assume Monday’s match will be easy, because there really are no easy games in this league, and we must always stay fully focused.

As for the injured players, we’ll need a little patience; we have to get them back to full strength.

The fans? Wonderful. Our team needs our fans more than ever, and I hope that’s the case on Monday and throughout the entire season, because for us, the fans are truly crucial.

The Spezia spirit must be clear in the mind of every player who wears this jersey. Everyone must feel like part of the project; everyone must feel like a key player and contribute to the cause. Hunger must be our main driving force, and everyone must feel like they’re part of something important and beautiful.

What do I fear about Vis Pesaro? Everything. It’s a team that hasn’t earned many points so far—the numbers speak for themselves—but it has tremendous technical quality, tremendous grit, and players who have competed at the highest levels for a long time. First and foremost, I need to do a good job preparing for the match, and we’ll have to set the right tone from the start—while remaining aware that throughout the entire game there will be many different situations we’ll need to manage.

On Wednesday, I received my first yellow card as a coach because, from my perspective, there were simply too many fouls. I’m a former player; I used to like physical play and I don’t like a disjointed game, but in recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of fouls against our players—not to mention the one that went unpunished on Florenzi in San Benedetto del Tronto—and in Perugia the same thing happened to Limonelli in the first half, which then continued in the second half with many really rough challenges, many of them on Jimenez, so I think it’s important that the referees also do their part to protect the game and penalize particularly rough challenges.

Limonelli? He knows exactly what I expect of him; he’s a technical player who’s spent a lot of time in Serie D and only one year in Serie C with me last season. He needs space and to feel involved in the play of a team that loves to play the ball on the ground, and he’s done a great job of feeling involved right from the start, while his teammates have done a great job of involving him.

Cannavò? He wasn’t in the best shape before the Perugia match, but I brought him on late because we were struggling on that side, and he played ten minutes at an extremely high level; right now he can’t get a lot of playing time, but we hope that week after week he’ll keep getting better and better and that he’ll be a big help to us.”