In the press conference after the defeat of Panathinaikos from Atromitos.
The “clover” coach emphasized, among other things, that he does not consider the team to be deformed, while he noted that “exclusion from Europe is no excuse».
What Ivan Jovanovic said in detail:
“You know, these kinds of mistakes are hard to explain. We are in a period where we make individual mistakes and this has a great cost. We are conceding goals after the mistakes, while we are not in much danger. This is a reason, something, that troubles us. Because they are individual. Certainly, there are quite a few issues to deal with. Several mistakes bring us back to the result. It is very troubling to us and it is not easy to explain.
I wouldn’t call it total deformation. It wasn’t a good game today. I think the mistakes were enough and they were serious and they held us back both in terms of the way we operate on the pitch and the final outcome of the game. The games and time frames are not such, to say that the team was deformed. I wouldn’t say that’s a major reason. I would focus more on serious individual mistakes.
Cherin is about ten days old, having some discomfort. In the European game he played 30 minutes. Certainly, he has some problems, which do not let him play at full speed. Aitor has also been burdened. Verbich was ill for 7-8 days. We try to go with as fit players as possible. We have some losses, but we also have a good enough roster to be able to respond in the way we should. However, we are not on the pitch as we should be. As a team, which has its difficulties, it should understand them and overcome them.
The ban from Europe was an issue, which bothered us all, but it is no excuse for today’s game in any way. We know our responsibilities and the expectations we have from this team. As long as the results don’t come, things get difficult. The important thing is to get back to a rhythm, which is needed, to be efficient during the game and to try to minimize the mistakes, which lately have been a lot».
Source: Sport Fm
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