“Bologna are a dangerous team who will be a good opponent”

Driven by the desire to show another face of AS Monaco, the red and white technician spoke at a press conference, on the eve of the trip to Bologna, on behalf of the 4th day of C1 (9 p.m.).

Determined to launch a new dynamic. Disappointed by the last two matches of the Rouge et Blanc, beaten in Nice and against Angers at the Stade Louis-II, Adi Hütter approaches the Champions League match against Bologna FC (Tuesday, 9 p.m.) with determination. It was therefore with the desire to bounce back that the Monegasque coach presented himself to the media on the eve of the match. Excerpts ????️

Good evening coach. Some Italian players played for AS Monaco. What can you tell us about this?

It's true that quite a few Italian players have had a great history with the Club, starting with Marco Simone, who was a player then a coach in the Principality. I had the chance to face him once during my career in the Champions League, when I played in Austria and he was at AC Milan.

I remember him as a truly classy player and a humble person. Also Claudio Ranieri, who was a great coach and had a successful spell. Many others have passed through AS Monaco, but I have only been there for a year, so I could not name them all.

Denis Zakaria will once again be missing from the group for this match. How will you adapt to his absence?

It's true that we will miss him again, but it would be too easy for me to say that when he is not here we cannot take him. It doesn't make sense to think so. I hope he will be back for the match against Strasbourg this weekend. Despite his absence, we have the players to put in a good match tomorrow night against Bologna, who are a good team. We will see how we can compensate for Denis' absence.

Bologna won for the first time at home in seven months. Do you think this can change the dynamic of the match?

First of all, it's a very good team for me, which had a superb season last year. This summer, a new experienced coach arrived, in the person of Vincenzo Italiano, who played in two Europa Conference League finals with Fiorentina. They have a well-defined playing philosophy, with strong scorers and great individuals like Riccardo Orsolini, Dan Ndoye or even Remo Freuler in the construction midfielder, who is a former Atalanta Bergamo player.

They beat Lecce this weekend which gave them a lot of confidence. They are a dangerous team, who will certainly be a very good opponent, but I am convinced that we will also be a very tough one.

What was your speech this week to relaunch the team?

We were very upset by our performance against Angers, which we cannot compare to our defeat against Nice, because the conditions were very different. When we were eleven against eleven in the Derby, we were dominant. Whereas against SCO, in my opinion, we missed everything in the first half, whether it was pressing, transitions or reactions to losing the ball.

We played really badly in this first act which cost us the match, and that's something we analyzed with the players. Tomorrow is a new match in another competition, and we came to Bologna with seven points in three games, which we obviously want to strengthen.

Did you toughen up your management after this defeat?

It was indeed a little different from usual, as we missed a lot of things. We showed a less good attitude than Angers, who played the shots very well. This defeat was “too much” for me, because once again that of Nice can be explained with the red card, but there we did not have the face of the ambitious team that we are, with high objectives . We cannot accept our performance in the first half, and my players understood that. And I hope we show it tomorrow.

What is your opinion on the latest performances of Eliesse Ben Seghir?

This is his first full season at the highest level with the team, having participated in all the preparation. We must not forget that he is only 19 years old, that he is already selected with Morocco, which means that he has played a lot of matches since the start of the season, and accumulated a lot of fatigue.

So we have to protect him, like all the players, because our group is not that big at the moment. There are also the trips which are sometimes difficult, and which mean that he is perhaps not in his best physical shape. So we have to be careful about that.

What is your view on the progression of Swiss football, with three players in each team in this match?

I knew Michel Aebischer well, whom I had under my command when I was coach at Young Boys in Bern, in addition to the two that I was able to mention earlier. For our part we are lucky to have Philipp Köhn, Denis Zakaria and Breel Embolo, who are three Swiss internationals.

Switzerland is a small country, but it has a lot of high quality players, as is the case in Austria for example. Bologna is lucky to have three international level players who come from there, like us. And you can also see that Swiss clubs are starting to have solid results in Europe.

Can you tell us a word about the contribution of President Rybolovlev since his arrival at the Club?

He arrived in 2011, when AS Monaco was playing in the second division. He allowed the team to return to the elite a year and a half later, before winning the French champion title in 2017 with Leonardo Jardim on the bench and Kylian Mbappé notably in the team. He is very committed and invested in the Club. We have a good relationship, we communicate regularly.

He is interested in what we do, why etc. He also wants to promote training, in particular with the Elite Group project, within which we have very young talents who have, for example, the opportunity to show themselves in the Youth League, to then access the professional group. I think he's happy with how things are going. The President is also a very ambitious person, he has very important objectives and I hope that we will achieve them.

What atmosphere do you expect for tomorrow?

I expect a very good atmosphere against Bologna, even more so after the victory against Lecce, because they showed that they are back. It's also the fourth Champions League game for them, and they only have one point at the moment, so it's a crucial encounter.

For our part, we will still be able to count on nearly 400 supporters in the park to encourage us. There are still many of them behind us and are very important to our success. So we hope we can celebrate the victory together.