Sarri discusses tactics in pre-Sampdoria presser

Another game, another presser for coach Maurizio Sarri, who started off by addressing the chances of fielding the trident again: “I want to see the conditions of the players first, we played 48 hours ago. We had just a light practice yesterday to recuperate some energies. So I truly do not know right now.”

On the schedule: “Everybody say that I complain a lot. This is how they decided, so we roll with it. Maybe the mistake was making Lazio play on Monday, perhaps they could have played their Serie A game Wednesday like we do. But that is neither here nor there at this point.”

On Wojciech Szczesny: “He will probably be out again, but that is not final yet. He was still ailing a bit yesterday, the MRI showed that there is something there.”

On the management: “They are strong and present, with great mentality and desire to win despite what they have already achieved. It is a constant push to give our best. The president is on point every day, he is an example of will and abnegation.”

On the strikers: “In general, they are fine and we have players that are coming back from injury like Douglas Costa and Aaron Ramsey. We will take stock with the doctors and them today, we need to respect their sensations.”

On Adrien Rabiot: “He is growing now, I think he needs to play. If he has recovered properly he can feature in three in a row. I am asking a sacrifice out of Blaise Matuidi as well right now, he spends a lot, so it would be better for him to play limited minutes.”

“Besides who the starters are, our scheme is very demanding for the midfielders because the two box-to-box have a lot of ground to cover. It is not a matter of supporting the strikers but the tactic as a whole. We can do that if we stay high and recover the ball, otherwise it is hard for entirety of the game. We need to have a constant offense, distribute carefully and track back if we lose the ball. It pays off if we attack, it creates some troubles if we have to defend.”

On the draw: “I do not care about it now. We will play that game in 70 days with the transfer market and 15 matches in the middle. The situation today is different from what it is going to be, the evaluations would be fickle. We feared Real Madrid and we would have been fine with the rest. We will focus on that in February, such round is hard to prepare no matter what.”

On the controversial campaign against racism: “It is fair to bring some sensibility to it, but the staffs have been multi-racial for a long time in football. The small-picture controversies do not interest me.”

On Sampdoria: “They are coming off the Derby, which could fuel them because it is an important game. They will be enthusiastic and confident, they are getting out of a difficult situation in the standings. It is a tough fixture, Claudio Ranieri is a high-level coach. We will need a quality performance.”

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