Paolo Zanetti, Empoli's head coach, has spoken to the media in a press conference prior to tomorrow's Serie A fixture that sees his side host the reigning Serie A champions AC Milan. Here are his statements:
"It has been a strange fortnight, because training with so few players is not usual. Those who have been here trained hard, unfortunately we lost Ismajli, it seems that it is a fairly serious muscle injury. Akpa Akpro also stopped today, he won't be in the game tomorrow. The national teams are always a question mark: we must take into account everyone's conditions and the accumulated fatigue."
On tomorrow's match with AC Milan:
"The goal of winning is what we work hard for every day, a victory that is the result of the performance against Bologna. We have never lacked self-esteem. Tomorrow's match will be against the Italian champions with merit, it was a pleasure to analyse Milan because they play well in all phases. It has many solutions, aggressiveness, physical condition, set well, and therefore it is an important testing ground."
Zanetti on Rafael Leao and how to stop him:
"One could be that Leao gets the flu. Leao is a champion but thinking about individuality is wrong and means giving too much weight to those who have to mark him. I don't want the team to be distorted by just one player."
On Sebastiano Luperto marking Olivier Giroud:
"Luperto is the leader of our defense, he is a cornerstone of the team. For Giroud, it is the same speech made relating to Leao. We work in the department to mark him when needed but it is not an individual matter."
On Nicolas Haas:
"He always plays, so he's fine. I consider him fundamental for our team due to his characteristics. He feels my confidence and every week he takes steps forward, he has to improve tactically because he should run better and score a few more goals."
Zanetti on Mattia Destro:
"He's fine, he's doing personalised work. He's pushing hard. I'm happy with him, he doesn't have minutes right now and it's logical. This is a progression he has to make to get into the team well, we really believe in him. He is working hard, the process is the right one."
