Giampaolo: “We didn’t turn up and made it easy for Crotone”

Marco Giampaolo didn’t shy away from the facts in his assessment of today’s below-par performance against Crotone.

“We didn’t turn up and never got started,” the Blucerchiati coach began. “It’s a damaging defeat and should give us all cause for reflection. The last goal summed up our performance. We made errors on every goal we conceded and cleared the way for Crotone.”

Giampaolo also explained his decision to substitute Gaston Ramirez on the half-hour mark.

“It wasn’t the right match for him anymore; it had gone in another direction. There was no space and we needed to bypass the traffic in Crotone’s midfield. It was a game where we needed to hit the reset button on everything.

“I chose Caprari initially because I knew there wouldn’t be much space, but going behind after six minutes ruined our tactical plan. I could have brought Gaston off after ten minutes, but it’s nothing to do with him personally. It was similar with Torreira’s substitution: a cautious decision to protect him after all the blows he took, also considering that he’s one yellow card from suspension. Capezzi was able to get some minutes under his belt.

“We conceded three goals almost without realising it and that hurts,” Giampaolo continued. “We had a chance to make progress in terms of our mentality and once again we’ve failed. Crotone play the long ball excellently, helped by the wind, but we were poor and slow to avoid danger, despite the fact we highlighted this mid-week.

“Collectively, we were missing something today, even though the team were excellent in training, one of the best weeks since I’ve been at the club. However, if we can’t beat the so-called small clubs, we won’t be able to make progress.”

To conclude his post-match interview, the coach revealed what he said to players during half-time.

“I told the team we’d probably lost the game, but we had to save our pride at least, playing the second half with our heads held high and refusing to give up. It wasn’t easy to continue playing after that first half, but there was fight and a reaction. Clearly not enough, but it was there.”