Walter Mazzarri was interviewed by Sky Sport after having witnessed his team give away a two-goal cushion at the Stadio Armando Picchi against Livorno.
“Those who wathced the match understand that it’s one of those years, who should be understood in a certain way. Let’s talk about the good things, like for example the character that the boys showed until, maybe subconsciously, they thought the match was closed. Livorno were revitalized after they scored their first goal and we missed 2-3 clear chances when we were 2-1 up. This is football in Italy: if you make a mistake you end up paying for it.”
“Guarins performance? He just needs to play well, as he knows how to do. Mistakes like the one he made today happens, you can say that it was a bad day but because of a string of these bad days we have thrown away an incredible amount of important points. We have to grow in order to make an evaluation at the end of the season as well as growing next year.”
“I spend a lot of time speaking to the players in order to get them to understand certain things, maybe 24 hours isn’t enough, however, I speak with them from morning to night. There are players who manage to understand and who go forward taking aboard the advice I give them, then there are those who have their limitations either because of mental or characteristical reasons, who you need to work on. The mentality is everything, to pay attention is fundamental. The difference between those who are champions and those who want to be champions lies in the head.”
Then Mazzarri was asked why he substituted Hernanes: “He wasn’t too lucid, during 2-0 we needed to close the match, we came to their penalty area and then it looked as though we were playing Play Station. He played a lot and gave a lot, therefore the change were Alvarez got to play mezz’ala to the left was entirely correct. I made the switch because I was thinking of doing what was right, Guarin also did some good things. I was thinking about bringing Kovacic on but maybe he is better suited to play on the left side of the midfield.”
“Samuel should have fouled Emeghara? I think Samuel didn’t even get enough time to understand that they had a man back there, he ran out of time but I think he was influenced by the fact that he was shown a yellow card earlier and was afraid of being sent off but it looked like he even didn’t try to make contact with him. Guarin’s mistake? It’s like when you pass the ball between the legs of the goalkeeper, Guarin didn’t do it on purpose, these things happen” Mazzarri concludes.
