Okan Buruk speaks on the points dropped from a 3-0 lead

In the 7th week of the Trendyol Süper League, Galatasaray drew 3-3 at home against Kasımpaşa. Speaking at the post-match press conference, Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk said, "A new match was scheduled just 3 days after our previous one. There is a 5-day break before the next match. We could have played tomorrow as well. Today, we suffered an injury."

This poor scheduling led to one of Galatasaray's most important players getting injured. Sallai was also injured, and we made two changes at halftime. We started the match well. With a 4-4-2 formation, we reached 3-0 without conceding many chances. The goal we conceded in the first half caused our opponent to start the second half with more appetite. The 2 changes we made had a negative impact.

We always highlight the contributions of the players who come off the bench. Today, we saw the exact opposite. The substitutions led us in a negative direction. We lost 2 points with the goal we conceded at the end of the match. Losing the match from this position is my responsibility. I am the one who makes the decisions regarding the moves within the game, the formation, and the rotation. If we dropped points, the primary responsibility is mine. In the second half, we could neither attack nor defend. At the end of the day, the ball that came in the last minute resulted in a goal.

We conceded a ridiculous goal without even being under pressure. We dropped 2 points here, and we are saddened. It will be a lesson for us. It will be a night that serves as a greater lesson for some of my players. We will evaluate this internally. We rotated the team that had been playing consecutive matches. In general, we should have done better towards the end of the match. We couldn't play the game we wanted here, and we conceded a goal. It is an important lesson for us," he said.

Stating that they could not hold the ball or reach the opponent's goal in the second half, Buruk said, "It was important for us to keep possession. We didn't give away very clear chances. One of the problems we experienced was our defensive line dropping back. We experience this a lot in scenarios where Davinson is not present. One of our problems was that we couldn't press high, and we didn't keep the ball. It could have been a game where we used the 3-1 advantage more comfortably, more securely, and created more danger at the opponent's goal," he stated.

"WE DID NOT START WITH HIM TODAY"

The manager of the yellow-reds, who said they rested Davinson Sanchez due to the intense fixture, expressed, "We did not start with Davinson today to eliminate the scenario where he is absent. He played 4 matches in a row, and we didn't want to make him play the 5th. Osimhen got injured. In this scenario, we wanted to protect Davinson. Nelsson did a very good job defensively during the game. He sometimes has difficulties in the decision-making phase. The opponent left the ball to him. Sometimes he turned back to the goal. Perhaps after Sara and Yunus got tired in the game, we started to struggle a bit more, and the center-backs needed to get involved in the game more. He will do even better from now on."

"VERY EASY PENALTIES ARE GIVEN AGAINST US"

Evaluating the incident where Ismail Jakobs conceded a penalty, Okan Buruk said, "I don't think it's a penalty. Because he is jumping, his back is turned, and his arm is not fully extended. They will call this a penalty, they will evaluate it as a penalty because it hit his hand. I don't know if it was right for VAR to call the referee over or not. We expect the player to be completely ready, to jump, or we expect them to close their arms completely while falling from the air. It catches him while he is closing his hand, his back is turned."

Whether this position is a penalty or not is something that will be debated. We have been seeing for weeks that these penalties are given against us very easily. Last week, in the Fenerbahçe match, a 100 percent incorrect penalty was given. Today, we see that VAR had an impact. A new referee, officiating a big match for the first time. This is also an important thing. Generally, referees who are going to officiate a big match for the first time are assigned to our matches. I am not attributing this result to the referee in any way, nor to the penalty."

I attribute it to the mistakes we made ourselves. There have been penalty decisions against us for weeks. Of course, if it's a penalty, they will give it. Last week, the blow to Yunus's foot was a clearer penalty, but VAR did not intervene there. We will learn how the VAR protocol works. Because when they come and explain it to us, they tell us different things, and we see different things in the matches. I hope we move toward a place where we have fewer question marks regarding this," he concluded.

News Source: İHA