Lucescu: “We lack confidence – There is pressure on everyone”

The defeat by Aris was attributed to the lack of self-confidence and the current circumstances in PAOK’s schedule. Razvan Lucescu.

The Romanian technician at Press conference after the match he emphasized that the results and the consecutive matches have created a pressure on his team, while he mentioned the rotation, but also the upcoming break for the national teams which might be beneficial.

In detail, what the 55-year-old coach of the “black and white” said:

For what went wrong and came the defeat: “I understand that it is disappointing, as a coach with a lot of experience I understand the moment, a process that drained our strength is coming to an end. We are in a place without tension, our evaluations are not completely correct, this brings the lack of self-confidence. In such games you have to score with a combination, a static phase and not make a mistake like it happened with us today. We see that players can’t create the way we want, our chances either didn’t find the target or went to the keeper. When the mind is not completely ok you have slow reactions, things worked differently in the past. We had tension in our actions. The break is positive to be able to work much more massively with the team, we were working in groups of 10-11 footballers together with their rehabilitation. All of this can be smoothed out with the work that can be done.”

For the situation with the consecutive derbies that follow: “We had the most difficult schedule, it took a lot of energy, the break is very important. On Thursday we will have to find the motivation and energy to change the result against us, from then on we will be able to come back with more intensity. In less than a month we played 4-5 derbies plus two European ones, no team had our schedule, especially the trio of derbies in 10 days which took away our energy. I don’t want to make excuses about programming or anything. That’s the situation we’re in, if you look at where we are maybe you wouldn’t expect it, second at the moment with a European game to play. Let’s come back fresher from the break with a desire to present something completely different.”

On the fact that he did not rotate in the last series of difficult games given by the team: “All the players are tired because they follow the same process and work. If we analyze exactly the changes that were made, you will find 1-2 different changes, the games are completely different conditions, we did the right thing in proportion to these games.”

On whether he feels that new elements should be added to PAOK as they seem predictable: “We are predictable, I accept it, this delay in our actions, that there is no intensity, that players who are central to the creation are not in the best possible condition. Today, in a misjudgment we conceded the goal, at a point we could have avoided under other circumstances. We will work to restore our energy and it will give us breath. Let me remind you where we were in the summer and where we are today. There is pressure on everyone, we are here to try. To regroup to get back to what we want to do.”