Interviews

Talking points: Roberto De Zerbi

Our head coach talks about our busy schedule; bouncing back from Wednesday; the Amex return; and Mitoma's form

By Bruce Talbot • 29 April 2023

By Paul Hazlewood
Roberto De Zerbi speaks to the media ahead of today's game against Wolves.

On the demands of a busy schedule…

"On Wednesday we should have forgotten the Wembley match, but instead we brought our disappointment to the game at Nottingham. This can happen when you are not used to playing so many important games in a row. Our improvement will be to get used to playing these types of games if we want to become bigger.

"I am not speaking about the quality or the ability on the pitch, but I think we lost the game in Nottingham before we started. We have to remember every day that if we want to become bigger we have to give our best, to be focussed 100% in every game and training session always."

On bouncing back from Forest setback…

"To be clear, I love my players more in Nottingham and Wembley than at Stamford Bridge for example [where Albion won 2-1], because I understood our passion and our loyalty. The reaction we had in Nottingham we had was of people really caring, and the fans should be proud, not of Stamford Bridge, but the performance of Nottingham. We gave everything even though we were tired, had limits in that game and were disappointed."

17:05

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De Zerbi's Wolves Press Conference

On the emergence of Enciso and Buonanotte…

"Both played well in the last two games. Normally we have to give them more time, but they have big quality and they have to get used to accepting the pressure."

On a points target to achieve European football…

"No, I am focussed game by game. Tomorrow we are going to play with Wolves and then Manchester United so it’s step-by-step. It’s not the right solution to put up a table and say we win here, we draw here, no… we try to play our best game every game and then we will see."

On the Amex return after five successive away games…

"It’s nice to play at home. It’s better in our stadium with our fans, but to achieve our target we need to find points away and at home."

On Kaoru Mitoma’s form…

"Mitoma is one of the best players and he is playing very well and I am very happy. Perhaps he is tired now because he’s playing maybe too many games but he has to get used to playing three games a week. If he wants to play for a big, big team or if we play in Europe next year we have to get used to playing almost every day."