antonio conte happy
What can you say about Richarlison after that?
I’m very happy for Richi. He deserved to have a night like this. I remember when we signed him he said I can’t wait to hear the Champions League music and play in this competition. Not many words but important words for me. Today, I remembered this and I said to him, Richi I remembered what you said, this is your chance and you deserved this. Enjoy this and try to do your best. He did his best, and he helped us get three points in a difficult game. Marseille is a really good team, really strong physically. They try to win all the duels in every area of the pitch. I think the first half we struggled a bit in these type of duels and maybe only once we kept the ball and attacked the space and shoot with Harry. The second half we did this much better, started very well with this type of situation, Sonny attacked the space and it was a red card. The game changed. I tried also to create difficulty for Marseille with the substitutions. We forced a lot really offensively with Deki and Perisic, then changed the central defenders with fresh central defenders to push, with Japhet Tanganga one side and Davies. In the end, we got the three points, very important for us to start this competition in the best possible way, it’s really important.
People may have thought that as Kulusevski didn’t start he would come back in for the Man City game, but Richarlison scored these two goals and it leaves you with a big decision to make?
I have for sure a big decision, not only this. Because honestly, I’m a bit worried because we are going to play against City in two days and it’s not easy, because I think some players need to rest and to recover. We have many players that played every game until now. But on one hand you know we have to make rotations to give these players a possibility to rest, and we have to try to find a good balance to make rotations because we are playing City and then Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League. It’s not easy when you play matches every few days because especially in the Champions League. Because in the Europa League, Europa Conference League group stage you can make more rotations and then you can afford also to lose some games because you know that in the end you’re going to recover. The Champions League is always a massive game. Now we have to manage the game very well for the game against Manchester City. I have to trust in my players and to make rotations. Because it would be impossible to play with the same players on Saturday and then Tuesday. Impossible, but yeah not easy, for sure.
What did you make of Marseille?
We knew very well the quality and the team that is Marseille. When we started to prepare the game through the video and on the pitch the situation was very clear. I said to my players to pay attention because today you have to do great duels in every zone of the pitch. We have to be good to win the duels as when you play against a team like this, if you are able to win the duels especially with the striker, you have the possibility to have a lot of space to go straight towards the goal. In the first half I didn’t think we did this well very well and Marseille played well. Defensively I think we were good because we conceded only one shot to Guendouzi. In the second half we solved this tactical situation because our striker give the ball and play ball behind and attack with Son. The red card and then we grew in attack and created chances to score.
Why did you decide to sign Richarlison and why did you say he was the right player to play with Harry Kane and Son?
We signed Richi because to exploit the best work of this team and to try to support the three strikers. When you have Sonny, Harry Kane and Deki last season, behind a player like Lucas who is now injured and a big problem for us, we tried to sign a player that was able to play in all of these three positions. For this reason we had no doubts to sign him. We did this quickly because our idea and our vision was very clear, especially for this reason. RichI is more of a striker than Deki but at the same time he can play in Son’s position, Harry Kane’s position, Deki’s position. For us this is very important because for sure when you make a change you don’t drop drop the quality in attack.
What did you make of Thomas Tuchel’s dismissal and how shocked where you by the news?
Honestly I don’t want to be disrespectful. I think when another club takes a decision I think it is right to don’t take comment because you don’t know what happened.
