The arancioneroverdi coach spoke to the media on the eve of the 12th round of Serie BKT. Venezia FC will host Sampdoria at the Pier Luigi Penzo Stadium at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 8, before the international break.

Giovanni Stroppa, Venezia FC head coach

“I still haven’t gotten over the anger after the Catanzaro match, even though we need to stay rational and balanced, because there are still plenty of positives to build on. We need to take stock of the moment and analyze the mistakes we made — we know where we went wrong, and we’ve worked on that this week.

The team has put in very good performances so far; I’m really proud to coach these lads and of what they’re showing on the pitch. Right now, we’re being penalized in the standings because of the mistakes we’ve made, but in terms of approach and mentality, the team is perfect, and we’ll keep going down this path.

Sampdoria are definitely going through a difficult spell, but given the quality of their squad, we’ll have to stay very alert tomorrow. We must be able to turn key moments in our favor while keeping our concentration high.

All my teams have always had the trait of being dominant, but I think I’ve never coached a team with the quality of Venezia. At this point, we already have solid ideas on the pitch. I’m not worried about our physical condition — we’ll certainly keep improving. Mentally, some individuals are still lacking a little bit, but we’ll definitely grow in that area too.

After every match, everyone recognizes that we’re a strong team, and as director Antonelli also said this week, that really fires me up inside. We’re competitive for this division, but there’s still a gap between being competitive and truly being strong. Last Monday, before training, we watched the Catanzaro match together to analyze our mistakes, and I told the boys that this is the path we need to continue on. I have the strength of our performances — I’ll move forward with this mentality.”