Mister Marco Turati’s words ahead of the match at Ravenna:
“We’ve worked very well in recent days, pushing on high tempos as the lads always do. I’ve seen a calm team, determined to keep improving and ready to face a quality opponent in the best possible way.
This is a complicated, balanced championship, where there are no trivial or foregone results. The table says Ravenna-Spezia will be a clash between top sides, so it will surely be a good match between two teams that have started the new season very well. But I agree with what was said on the other side, namely that it will absolutely not be a decisive game, but rather a test to see where both teams are at. Ravenna finished third last season, have a year more of work behind them and were able to choose who to keep from last season and who to bring in. They have players from a higher division, made a huge summer transfer window, can count on a coach whom people here in La Spezia know well, and have a really strong management. The Sporting Director was my roommate, he’s very intelligent and has built a squad of absolute quality.
I’m very happy to have the chance, week after week, to measure myself against experienced coaches: it’s a source of pride for me, but also a way of testing the ideas we bring onto the pitch. However, what interests me most is seeing the growth path of each individual player. This year I’m seeing a group in which every lad improves day by day, and the regret is not being able to give everyone the chance to play and get more minutes.
We certainly have to deal with a few knocks, and as always we’ll need to be good at judging who to risk and who not to, because it’s important to manage our resources well. Since this isn’t a final, we’ll try to make the best choices based on each player’s condition.
The full-backs? I’m very happy to have them all available, because they have incredible human qualities that make them always push hard, and they’ll certainly all be useful over the course of the season.
As I said before, I’d like to give more minutes to many of the lads, but being ready when called upon is a trait I really appreciate and that the players at my disposal always show, coming on at full intensity even with few minutes available. The strength lies first of all in the group, because if the team is compact and keeps doing what it does best, it’s undoubtedly easier for those coming on to get into the game straight away.
Zilli? Massimo has an imposing physique. He joined on the last day of the transfer window and so needed time to absorb the concepts his teammates had been able to learn during pre-season, but he has shown he’s a strong player with a Spezia mentality. Of course, there are the Sunday choices, which are up to me, and in that role there’s also a lad like Mazzocchi who has shown great attachment to the shirt from the start, offering excellent performances and often finding the net too. But I’m happy to have these ‘problems’ because it means I have two very important centre-forwards available.
Ravenna have a stratospheric array of forwards and attacking midfielders, so we certainly have a very small margin for error. They’re also a chameleon-like side with the experience to change things on the fly, so we’ll need great attention, but at the same time we must play the way we know, bringing onto the pitch that strength, that attitude and that spirit that has marked us out until now.
It will be a good test for all of us, because like Reggiana and Pescara, Ravenna is a team openly aiming for Serie B, unlike us, who are a young project, to be cultivated and grown week after week. When we face teams like this it’s a challenge for us, to see what level we’re at and try to compete at least within the single match.
The fans? In recent weeks we’ve missed them a lot in away games, and I personally still have in my eyes the images of San Benedetto del Tronto, where our fans were decisive in turning the result around. Having them with us in Ravenna will surely be extra motivation.
We can’t afford any dips. We know very well that Ravenna is a very strong, experienced team that will be carried along by its own crowd, so we just have to think about giving our 100%, as we’ve done up to now.”
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