Antalyaspor, which has 6 wins, 3 draws and 7 defeats in the 16 matches it played in the Super League and is in the 9th place with 21 points, will start its preparations for the second half of the league today evening. Antalyaspor Coach Alex de Souza answered the questions of the press members at Atilla Vehbi Konuk Facilities after the end of the first half of the league.
‘I HOPE IT GOES WELL’
Evaluating the first half of the season, Alex de Souza said, “Next week I will complete my 6th month of working in Antalya. I am happy to work here. There is a match between Eyüpspor and Trabzonspor to end the first half of the league, we will continue our work for the rest. We have had good times so far.” And we had bad days, we lost and won matches. Everything happened in football. I hope it will continue the same way since our previous meeting. “I didn’t have much information about the club or the team. As of today, I have a lot of information. Besides, I would like to thank Antalyaspor and its management for the chance to work in Turkey again. We have had good days for 6 months. I hope the future will be good.”
‘WE NEED TO HOLD MEETINGS MORE OFTEN’
Expressing that the length of the press conferences is not related to him, Alex said, “We definitely need to hold these press conferences more often. The closer the press is to us, the better we can explain our work. However, I would like you to know that this is not in my control. The closer we are to each other, the more we can do our work.” “It will allow us to explain it better. I would like this to be clarified. I want you to know that the closer we are, the more clarity there will be, but there are authorities above me and I do not have the chance to get involved in press conferences much.”
‘ONLY ONE OF THE PLAYERS I WANTED CAME’
Stating that only the defender Thalisson was taken from the transfers he wanted in the squad planning, the Brazilian coach said, “The other players who came during the summer transfer period were the players determined by the club. The working system was as follows. I offered the club the players of the style I wanted and the only one who came from there was Thalisson and the others were the ones I wanted.” The rate of the game I want to reflect in my mind is very low. I do not have those players in my squad for the game I want to reflect, but as I said, there is no fast player in our team. “We do not have a player squad, but we are trying to reflect this on the field with the players we have. There are 25-26 players in our team and we put them on the field to get the best efficiency.”
‘WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH TRANSFER’
Stating that they had problems with transfers and there were transfer bans, Alex noted that the club was also going through difficult times. Alex de Souza said, “There is a difficulty that the club is in. The transfer board is closed. These are all situations that we have to face. We spend these problems talking. The players we need are and we inform them to the club, but the decision-maker is the club. There are players with the character I want. For example Fast player character is one of them. We are trying to find a solution in the middle of all of these. The management will face this and act accordingly with all the players in our squad. “We will try to reflect our game. We also have a problem in our centre-back position. We have limited players in this region. My opinion is to play in the best possible way for the next Eyüpspor match with the players we have.”
‘COACHING IS DIFFICULT, PLAYING IS A MORE FUN AND SIMPLE GAME’
Stating that being a coach is much more difficult than being a football player, Alex de Souza said, “It is not even worth comparing, being a coach is much more difficult. When I was a player, I was only responsible for myself. When you become a coach, I am responsible for 25 players. I have to deal with a lot of their things. Your responsibilities are more at this level.” “It is a more fun and simple game to play,” he said.
‘I NEVER THINK ABOUT RESIGNING’
Pointing out that he has never thought about resigning since the day he came to Antalyaspor, Alex said, “I have never thought about it and I have a 2-year contract. I am here until the end of my contract. Fans can sometimes call on the authorities in charge to resign when the team is doing badly and loses. This is quite normal and our duty is to please them. and to ensure that they do not get caught up in these thoughts,” he said.
‘WE WANT TO REFLECT AN AGGRESSIVE, FAST AND REGULAR GAME ON THE FIELD’
Stating that they want to reflect an aggressive, fast and organized game on the field, Alex de Souza said, “First of all, I would like to have a team that steals the ball aggressively and quickly and attacks quickly. I am trying to reflect this with the current group of players. I want to create an organized team.” You can see these in the last matches. We want to get the best out of all the players. We had a bad match against Beşiktaş and Başakşehir in the first matches of the league and we conceded 9 goals. “We take it into consideration. In the midst of all this, there are some situations such as injuries and this makes us very sad. We need to be calm when looking at the analysis, because we can make the right decisions so far,” he said.
‘IT IS NOT MY DUTY TO SPEAK TO THE REFEREES’
Expressing that he is working with the dream of a regular team, Alex said, “I aim to form a regular team and game. Erdoğan Yeşilyurt closed the season. Burak İngenç was injured, these things happen in football. A solution must be found. We are here for this. Ramzi Safuri has 1 goal in 40 matches, 1 The goal was missed from the penalty spot. I am happy with everything so far. Musa Nizam and Anderson showed good and bad appearances from time to time. Losing outside is a bad result. These make it difficult for us to get points away. It would be better to analyze the points lost away. It is not my duty to speak to the referees. We will have difficult matches against Gaziantep. “It will be a league match and a Kocaeli match. We have a limited player squad and we will do our best.”
‘I CAN BE SENT IF I GET 0 POINTS FROM 3 MATCHES’
Stating that Antalyaspor always aims to win when they take the field, Souza said, “We have a 3-match series ahead of us. There are matches against Eyüpspor, Kocaelispor and Trabzonspor. Our goal in these 3 matches is 9 points, if I get 0 points, the management can send me. If I had not converted the Alanyaspor match, maybe I would be right now.” “I wouldn’t be sitting here,” he said.
Stating that he usually does not leave the facilities, Souza said, “I have meetings with the technical team, management and players here. I thank the people of Antalya for their interest, but I generally do not go out of here. I went out during the holidays between the National Team.”
‘THE PROBLEM OF GETTING LOW POINTS IN AWAY’
Alex de Souza stated that it was bad that they won few points on the road and that they would work harder to overcome this problem. Explaining his goal in the Turkish Cup, Alex de Souza said, “We have a narrow group of players who will have difficult matches. We had a difficult time in the Gaziantepspor match, before that we played against Muşspor in the cup. We will have a league and cup match. We will field the best 11 with the players we have. In the cup “We will have difficult matches,” he said.
Underlining that his goal in the league has always been the same from the very beginning and that he aims to create a winning team, Souza said, “We are trying to put the best 11 on the field that can win every match. Your place changes every week depending on the victory and defeat. We have problems that we need to solve and manage.” .