Salernitana, Paulo Sousa: “We need more aggression”

Clear concepts to explain his idea of ​​football but above all the personal ambition that prompted him to accept Salernitana’s proposal. The debut of Paulo Sousa, in his second experience as a coach in Italy after the one with Fiorentina a few years ago, is immediately difficult. Tomorrow there is Sarri’s Lazio, “among the best coaches”, and the team from Campania, which hasn’t won at the Arechi since last October, will have to try to reverse the negative trend (a draw and a victory in the seven days after the world stop) which reduced the advantage over the relegation zone to just four points. “I work on concepts rather than on game systems. I like having a short, intense team. It will be difficult against an opponent like Lazio”, said the Portuguese coach in the presentation press conference accompanied by sports director Morgan De Sanctis. “It will be necessary to improve in the beginning of the construction of the game, the team was built to play five”. One of the probable new features will be the formation (3-4-2-1) with possible surprises in the starting line-up but is there a goalkeeper puzzle to solve, Ochoa or Sepe? The Mexican seems to be the favourites. “Now it will depend on what they do during the week and on the strategy of the match. We will make decisions about the goalkeeper based on this, there won’t be a starter right away, I told them too.” Tomorrow Dia, Fazio, Maggiore, Mazzocchi and Troost-Ekong will not be available; in Paulo Sousa’s Salernitana some of the players who were little used during Nicola’s management will also find more space, this is the case of the forwards Botheim and Valencia. “Increasing the number of strikers’ goals is a goal, to achieve it we need to create and manage the ball better,” Paulo Sousa pointed out. “I could have coached elsewhere too, I had other offers but I accepted Salerno for this club’s project. Nicola’s sacking? It was a delicate moment, so the club wanted to take a different direction – the new Salernitana coach pointed out – We need to improve some things on a competitive level, in terms of aggression, the team needs depth. I’m sure that starting tomorrow there will be a lot of push in the stands, the fans will put the players in a position to reach safety as soon as possible.”