Galatasaray drew 3-3 with Kasımpaşa, which it hosted at home in the 7th week of the Super League. Galatasaray Coach Okan Buruk made a statement at the press conference held after the match. Evaluating the match, Buruk said, “A new match was scheduled 3 days after the previous match. There are 5 days break for the next match. We could play tomorrow too. Today we suffered an injury. This poor planning led to the injury of one of Galatasaray’s most important players. Sallai was also injured, we made two changes in the half. Our start to the match was good. We achieved 3-0 with the 4-4-2 formation without giving many positions. The goal we conceded in the first half allowed our opponent to start the second half enthusiastically. The 2 changes we made were negative. We would always underline the contributions of the entering players. Today we saw the exact opposite. Player changes took us to a negative point. We lost 2 points with the goal we conceded at the end of the match. It’s my responsibility to lose the match. I am the one who decides on the moves, formations and rotations in the game we play. If we lost points, my first responsibility is mine. We could neither attack nor defend in the second half. At the end of the day, the last minute ball became a goal. We conceded a ridiculous goal without any pressure. We lost 2 points here, we are sad. It will be a lesson to us. It will be a night that will teach more lessons to some of my players. We will evaluate this internally. We changed the team that played consecutive matches. In general, we should have done better towards the end of the match. We couldn’t play the game we wanted here, we conceded a goal. “It is an important lesson for us,” he said.
‘WE EXPERIENCE THIS A LOT IN THE SCENARIO WITHOUT DAVINSON’
Okan Buruk, who mentioned that they could not apply the pressure correctly in the front, said, “It was important that the ball remained with us. We did not give very clear positions. One of the problems we had was that our defensive line was running backwards. We experience this a lot in the scenario where Davinson is not present. One of our problems was that we could not put the pressure in the front. We did not have the ball. “It could have been a game in which we could take the 3-1 advantage more easily, more safely and create a threat to the opponent’s goal,” he said.
‘NELSSON DID A VERY GOOD JOB DEFENSE’
Pointing out that they started to have a little more difficulty after Gabriel Sara and Yunus Akgün got tired during the match, the 50-year-old coach said, “We did not start with Davinson today to eliminate the scenario where Davinson was not present. He played 4 matches in a row. We didn’t want to play the 5th match. Osimhen was injured. We wanted to protect Davinson in this scenario. Nelson did a very good job defensively during the game. He sometimes has difficulties in the decision-making process. The opponent left the ball to him. Sometimes he returned to the goal. Maybe we started to have a little more difficulty during the game after Sara and Yunus got tired. The defenders had to get into the game more. “He will do even better from now on,” he commented.
‘WE HAVE SEEN FOR WEEKS THAT THESE PENALTY ARE GIVEN AGAINST US VERY EASILY’
Commenting on Ismail Jakobs’ penalty position, Okan Buruk said, “I think it is not a penalty. Because he is jumping in the air, his back is turned, his arm is not fully open. They will call it a penalty, it will be considered a penalty because it hit his hand. Is it right for VAR to call him? I don’t know. We wait for the player to stand fully ready and jump into the air, or we wait for him to close his arms and fall from the air. He catches the player with his back turned. Whether or not this position is a penalty is a matter of debate. We have been seeing these penalties given very easily against us for weeks. A 100% wrong penalty was given in the Fenerbahçe match. Today we see that VAR has an impact. This is an important thing. Generally, the referees who will play in a big match for the first time do not give this result to us. I don’t blame it on the referee, I don’t blame it on the penalty, I blame it on our own mistakes, there have been penalty decisions against us for weeks. Of course, if it is a penalty, he will give a penalty. The blow to Yunus’ foot last week was clearly a penalty, but VAR did not interfere there. We will learn how the VAR protocol works. Because when they come to us and tell us, they tell different things, we see different things in the matches. “Hopefully, we will go to a place where we have fewer questions about this,” he concluded.
