Finishing training ahead of the match against Sion took place Friday morning at the new Cadro ground. Not summoned because they are injured for Saturday's 6 p.m. match will be Steffen, Marques and Przybylko.
TAKE ADVANTAGE
In the eve press conference, coach Mattia Croci-Torti was asked if he gave himself an explanation for the two "somewhat bland" approaches to the challenges with Basel and Winterthur.
"The approaches were not the best but the important thing is that they happened early on, we understood that certain mistakes we could no longer make and we were able to quickly repair the situations, coming out with four points from the two challenges. The trend is positive, but if we want to play for more goals we have to try to go ahead ourselves once. In the last few games, starting with Legia, Pafos, Lausanne, Basel and Winterthur we always had to chase and this is something to improve. We don't always have to be good at reacting but start taking action."
COUNTERATTACK TEAM
-Here comes Sion, which has two defeats behind it (the last one after taking the lead in Basel). What kind of match do you expect, will they be angry and eager for redemption?
"Sion is a team that has had up and down phases this season. It started well, then there was a downturn and again a good end of the year that almost put it back in the top six. The 2025 started with a tough game with GC: when you play with an extra man for 85′ and lose at home, determining dynamics come undone. Getting beaten in Basel fits. That Valais team is a team that has players, I think of the offensive aspect (Chouaref, Bouchlarem, Berdayes himself) who are always ready to restart. So we will have to be more careful than usual in preventive marking, try not to let them restart. They are a strong complex that has changed something in defense: captain Schmied has gone to Cologne but important elements have arrived such as Barba (who also made seven games in Serie A this year in Como and nobody gave them to him) and Hajrizi who is a defender we know very well and who on stationary balls is very important. It will be an opponent who will look so much to defend, but who will try to do tomorrow as well what they do very well and that is to restart with great speed."
THE FASTEST SL
-About the Valais defense, the first game at Tourbillon had been famous for zero shots on goal, which was unique in your management. What was it due to: the opponent, your poor streak?
"If I remember correctly, it was the match in which we had the most ball possession in the entire league. Sion allowed us from start to finish to be in their half of the field playing, basically giving up creating chances for themselves. What we did not expect was such relinquishing tactics at home, only two or three months earlier in the Cup the opposite had happened: they had attacked us and did not see them stealing the ball from us to restart. So the league match was a bit strange, we had Vladi and Pryzybylko injured and we played with Bottani as a central striker, not even Steffen was there. We had a hard time bothering them also because we were coming from a midweek commitment and they were not. It had been an abnormal Sion, they usually come to attack you hard, they have explosive players who dragged the team at times when they got results. All people who when they point to the man are scary. The three elements behind the forwards are among the fastest in Super League."
CIMIGNANS IN THE FIELD
-About your performers there is curiosity about the lineup choices especially with regard to central defense, the first forward and Steffen's replacement.
"Knowing my management pretty well, you know that one of the things I value most is the confidence that you have to give the guys. They can also make mistakes but I have to be good at responding to them. In my choices the work of this week has been very important. Those who maybe in the first two games did not express their value at their best are not flunked in fact they are still important players for Lugano. We are the team that has started like this since the beginning of the season and has made almost less of a market than the others, we have only taken players from our Chicago cousins. So we have tried to change as little as possible and also in tomorrow's challenge we want to give continuity and confidence to the guys. Sometimes obviously as a coach I have to know how to take the positive flow of certain players and today I can tell myself that Cimignani will be on the field 100 percent from the first minute, although I cannot tell you which side he will play."
NEVER AND THE COMPETITION
-How important is it to have recovered especially mentally a player with Mai's characteristics who with the arrival of Papadopulos found himself second choice and in Winterthur gave you an important response?
"Let's not forget that Lukas had started the year as a starter against GC. If Papadoipulos played more it was because he was always ready and I felt he could help us out. The games Mai played were not low quality but obviously it is not easy to be a starter for two years and then find yourself on the bench. But he has always given very good answers and even in Winterthur we confirmed that we have a very good roster and Mai is that player who in addition to his physical impact is able to enhance the action of his team, starting from the bottom with plays of excellent quality. If tomorrow, as we go into a week with three games, it was still his turn, I expect a player who from the mental aspect has the desire to regain his place. Competition is necessary and in these two years he is dragging us down."
THREE GAMES IN SEVEN DAYS
-Turning back to the lineup and your resolutions not to fail anyone, could you also take the risks tomorrow of keeping the team that has not convinced at the start of the past few games?
"If the same ones played it would not be a risk but I would give continuity and confidence to the guys. However, at this moment I think we also need to reward those who take over and do it with the right spirit and show that those who sit on the bench are not only there to help the team in the final minutes but also to have a chance to play more. So there will be rotations also due to the fact that we will play three games in seven days. I have to take advantage of the players I have and I will also make assessments depending on the opponent and the next match. In my head there are already challenges with Sion, St. Gallen and GC and not just one."
FEWER MISTAKES TO EXCEL
-How do you explain the penalties you have recently conceded to the opponents (five in three games), have you discussed this with the boys?
"This is a theme we had already touched on last week. I had not been happy with the four penalties suffered against Lausanne and Basel, all due to individual errors and lack of concentration. Situations born from poor ball handling, we have to improve also because we know that the rules have changed and it is easier to be sanctioned for interventions in the area. Raising the level of concentration is important, this year the league is making a selection: those who make fewer mistakes stay at the top. If we want to aim for the top positions we have to avoid conceding conclusions like the one with Winterthur then ended up on Zanotti's arm but the mistake had been made before."
GRATEFUL TO HAJRIZI
-Tomorrow when you meet Hajrizi will you say hello to him?
"I think when he was hired by Sion I was one of the first to call him to wish him a good season. It's definitely not a hot statement from him that can take away three years of great confidence I had in him. There was anger about not being called up for the Cup final, Kreshnik knows very well that he was coming from three months of injury but I understand that he was hurt. I cannot forget what he did for this team in the three years he was a member, he gave and gave me so much. Soccer makes for nervous moments but it doesn't make you forget and Hajrizi is someone who has given me so much."
THE RETURNS OF NSAME AND BEDIA
-How did you greet the news of Nsame's move to St. Gallen?
"Not positively, it strengthens an already strong team up front and one that perhaps needed less of a forward. They have certainly further strengthened their attack with a not 31-year-old element to which attention will have to be paid."
-What about the possible move of former Servetian Bedia to Young Boys?
"If you want to win the championship you have to know that in the winter there is a market through which teams can strengthen themselves. You saw Yverdon sign an element like Marchesano who for me can make them take a decisive step toward salvation. No one wants to relegate and everyone wants to win the championship and we also won a game at 93′ thanks to a purchase and it is right that others do the same."
FROM CHICACO GOOD ARRIVALS
-Did you ever get your hopes up for either of these strikers?
"They were not our targets; we had other elements on the radar. But right now we've kept the current roster and we're moving forward with help from Chicago Cousins, which certainly hasn't turned out to be bad help."
KOUTSIAS WORKS HARD
-Koutsias has earned the starting job?
"Giorgos is a player that Chicago invested heavily in two years ago. It may seem as if he came here a gamble, but Koutsias is the number 10 of the Greek U21 national team, and we are not talking about a nation that is footballingly adrift. He came to Ticino to help us right away and we have always said so. We have to be careful not to burn the boy out (he is a class of 2004): he does not yet speak Italian and is slowly beginning to understand the dynamics. However, he is doing the fundamental thing and that is working hard. We are happy and he will definitely have a chance from the start in the next three games."
EVERYONE WANTS TO STAY
-About the market even 25 years ago Lugano started the comeback playing for the title and in the winter break signed Türkilmaz, then it went the way it went. Does the desire not to change and not to affect the balance of a group that has achieved important results prevail more in the current club, or are there financial constraints due also to relations with Chicago?
"While you were expounding the two perspectives, a third explanation came to my mind: apart from Aboubacar and Lungoyi a few years ago, no one in mid-season has ever wanted to leave FC Lugano. Usually in teams those who play poorly or are unhappy want to leave and you have to be good at replacing them. I had asked the club for an extra man up front, no one left and Koutsias arrived. No one else asked to be dropped and so we did not go and explore other situations that were available. Everyone wants to stay and this is due to the strength of the society and the opportunity we have had in the last two years to field so many elements. Everyone feels a little bit like a protagonist because of the many commitments as well. In addition, many of our players like them but no concerted offers have come in so we are holding on to all the best ones to play it out to the end."
PREPARE FOR THE INITIAL DUELS
-After Basel you had said that you should remain humble to avoid embarrassment. Was there a lack of humility in Winterthur?
"In the first 60 minutes of the match we had four or five chances that if taken advantage of could have steered the match in another way. It was not a lack of humility but, if anything, a desire to get on the field better and act right away instead of reacting. This is what we hammered the nail on during the week. This morning I changed pre-match training, it means there is a will on my part to do something too, to be stronger in duels from the first minute. You know I'm not one of those who says at the end of the game, "Today we fought or we didn't fight." I think there is a lot more to take into account, however, the duels were important in Winterthur, in the first 15 minutes Baroan got the better of practically everyone and therefore there was something that went."
16 TOUCHES BEFORE THE GOAL
-Turning back to Winterthur, it is clear that Grgic made an obvious mistake, but you want to play this way and as a result you anticipate that sooner or later something like this may happen and may cost a goal. Or do you anticipate reviewing the way of playing?
"No, I'm not angry with the player. He knows that that ball should have played it at most two touches, We train for that, he couldn't give it and he got in trouble. Saipi had then corrected the situation well but in the area happened what should not have happened, there was a Winterthur player free. With Maric during the week we worked on this aspect and on improving concentration at these junctures. We are rightly talking about the two or three negative situations that can cost goals but there were also many positive things. In Winterthur it is difficult to react and score three goals and we did it in the second half. I showed the team our third goal:It was the result of 16 consecutive passes in 93′ with Lukas Mai going three times in their half and with Aliseda defending the ball on two occasions. So the courage to play it to the end and it is right that I also emphasize the many things that are working. After Basel's first goal we could have gone into a difficult spiral and instead we reacted great."
ALISEDA IS COMING BACK
-Aliseda is fully recovered and ready to return as a starter?
"He needs rhythm and minutes. Difficult to see him starting tomorrow but it is very likely that he will gradually become more important even with the minutes. He is not coming from a two-week injury but has been out for almost three months, a quarter of the season. So we also have to be good at making him the Aliseda we want again: this week he has been training already strong with the desire to play more and this is very good for the team and for me and also for the fans because when Aliseda is well and playing like he knows it is a good sight for everyone."
THE NEW STADIUM AS A MOTIVATION
-We saw the doors open to the new AIL Arena. Have you entered it yet and done some thinking?
"Roberto Mazza has asked me several times to visit the construction site but I don't feel like doing it. I would like to get there when everything is ready to fully enjoy the new stadium, really hoping-because soccer is about results-that I can earn it. Looking at the construction site I always think 'I have to be able to get there' it's a kind of inner motivation."
