After the match won against RKC Waalwijk, Arne Slot said he was not satisfied with the entire match. In front of the camera ESPN tells the trainer about the decision to keep Alireza Jahanbakhsh on the bench and the upcoming match against AS Roma.
”They heard at half-time that the trainer was not so satisfied with the first fifteen minutes”, Slot responds to the critical statements of Gernot Trauner and Quilindschy Hartman. “Especially because I thought that RKC Waalwijk was able to cross midfield a few times too often. That also applied to the first fifteen minutes to twenty minutes of the second half. Only when it became 4-0 did you see a bit how I want to see it.”
Jahanbakhsh
The Feyenoord trainer is very happy with Igor Paixão’s match, partly because he was only told at the last minute that he would start. “That is of course very nice for the team that a lost player who had three assists in recent weeks can be well received. During a moment on a cross, he raised his leg quite high. He hesitated for a moment and said, “I think it’s possible, coach.” But I quickly replied, “If this is it, I don’t think it’s enough.” I made the decision because the medical staff also had doubts. I want to field a top fit player, because the players differ little from each other. Hopefully Ali is now fit for Thursday, and Igor at least played an excellent game.”
AS Roma
In the run-up to the final in last year’s Conference League final, Slot has often indicated that Jose Mourinho is a very challenging trainer. However, the Portuguese is not yet haunted by Slot’s thoughts: ”That may be a bit more in the coming days. We have of course had a very busy schedule in recent weeks, with a very important match against Ajax, which we unfortunately lost. Then the next one is also important, RKC is always able to make plowing very difficult. Now we will focus on Roma. Marino Pusic has been working on it for a while, he does the analysis. I will only start working very hard on that from tomorrow.”
Because of the final there is a feeling of revenge on the Romans, but this is not a determining factor in the preparation. “Yes, maybe with me and a few guys who were there too. It must be a bit strange if you have to unleash extra feelings for a quarter-final in Europe to be extra fanatical. So we’re tackling this game the same as all the others. I would be lying if I say I look back fondly on the Conference League final, so we know how incredibly difficult it is to beat AS Roma. Last year we had a really good team, now it’s almost completely new, but we have a really good team again. We’ll see how it compares when we play against each other at home and away.”
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