Okan Buruk: I couldn't enjoy the happiness of 7 wins in 7 matches

In the opening match of the 7th week of the Trendyol Super League, Galatasaray defeated Alanyaspor 1-0 away from home.

Evaluating the match at the post-match press conference, Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk cited examples from Alanyaspor's home games against Beşiktaş and most recently Başakşehir, saying, "We knew they were a team that plays 3-4-3 well, especially with fast players who excel in transition attacks. We conceded two such chances in the first half. We had our own chances as well. We had more control of the game. Until a certain minute in the second half, we had control of the game."

"WE WANTED TO PLAY OSIMHEN"

Stating that Torreira had a health issue during halftime, Buruk said, "He had a slight fainting spell. We started with a substitution. We had the chance to find a second goal, but our opponent had very clear chances to equalize at 1-1 in the last 15-20 minutes of the game. They did very well. We performed poorly in defense and gave our opponents opportunities. I wasn't very happy when the match ended. We started with 7 wins in 7 matches and 21 points, but honestly, I couldn't enjoy the happiness of this. There are factors for this, of course. We will play a very important match on Tuesday. On one hand, we made changes to the squad; we had injured players. Kaan and Yunus had pain, so we didn't use them during the game. Seeing that Barış was very tired, we wanted to play Osimhen. Sometimes we had difficulty in defensive positioning. As I said, we are happy to have won at the end of the day, but I can't really enjoy that happiness too much," he expressed.

"WE PREPARED AT THE SAME TIME"

Buruk explained that they were preparing for the Champions League match against Liverpool and the Alanyaspor match at the same time, stating, "While preparing for the Alanya match on one hand, we prepared for the Liverpool match on the other. It is difficult to prepare for two matches at the same time. Many teams can drop points in these places. Actually, we won today without playing well. Especially, I don't think we finished the match well. For certain minutes, we had the ball again, and the opponent stayed behind the ball. We gave them transition chances. The final part didn't go as we wanted. Our opponent had clear chances. Here, both our goalkeeper made important saves and the opponent failed to finish," he said.

OSIMHEN STATEMENT

Noting that Osimhen is not one hundred percent physically ready, Buruk concluded his words as follows:

"We wanted to play him for 10 minutes today. We wanted to see if he had pain. Sometimes there is pain, and playing with pain is also important. He is not one hundred percent physically ready. He hasn't done any team training since returning from the national team. He joined us for a short part yesterday. We will evaluate his pain and physical condition and think about the next match. Today, when Barış was coming off, maybe the game needed a winger there, but I brought Osimhen on specifically so he could play for 10 minutes and have a chance to play in the next match and contribute to us. Maybe we changed our formation and had trouble defending against the opponent. However, we are forced to take these risks for him to play."

News Source: İHA