Çağdaş Atan cites De Zerbi as an example: We will improve our game!

Başakşehir manager Çağdaş Atan made statements following his team's 1-0 victory over Yılport Samsunspor in the 28th week of the Süper Lig.

Speaking at the press conference held after the match at Başakşehir Fatih Terim Stadium, Çağdaş Atan said, "Honestly, I thought it would be a very difficult match, and it was a notch harder than we expected."

Emphasizing that Samsunspor tried to apply pressure, especially in the first 15 minutes of the match, Atan noted: "They collect second balls very well after long balls; we couldn't win those second balls. We struggled for 15-20 minutes; while building play from the back, we tried to break the lines and get behind them a few times. Kemen made a mistake, and we gave the opponent a chance. We recovered after the 20th minute, and the turning point of the match was the red card. After the red card, the game came under our control. We had a lot of possession between the 45th and 85th minutes and made the opponent run a lot. We couldn't find the second goal, and we had another period of struggle in the last 5 minutes."

"WE FOUGHT AGAINST A TOUGH OPPONENT"

Underlining that Samsunspor did not give up despite being down to 10 men, Atan said, "Samsunspor is a club that deserves appreciation in this league. They never stopped fighting today; I congratulate them. I wish them success in their upcoming matches. We were in a process; the 12th week of the league was like a turning point for us. After the Beşiktaş match, there was a 13-point gap between us and 5th place; now there is a 1-point difference. The change here should not be ignored. We could have played with more enthusiasm, but we fought against a tough opponent," he stated.

THE DE ZERBI EXAMPLE

When asked, "It seems the team still cannot play as fast as you want. Do you think there is also a slowness in passing speed?", Çağdaş Atan replied: "We insist on trying to build play from the back, and I can say that we will not give up on this. We resort to long balls in parts, but we think this is the part of the game that will develop the player. I also see comments that I think are not very correct, suggesting that insisting on this game is not right. I disagree. There is a manager named De Zerbi whom everyone likes and appreciates; he didn't win anything in Italy, and in England, he earned the right to go to European cups. In the game this coach plays, players constantly increase their market value. You know the value of the players Brighton has sold. This game plan is one of our indispensables. There are many situations where we break the opponent and get behind them when we draw them onto us. In my opinion, the speed of the ball remained slow today. We will remain loyal to this game plan. We will continue by improving our game. We are trying to make the current players play this game. I think this game will become more automatic with the moves we will make. Because we didn't have a training camp. Since the time of Abdullah [Avcı] hocam, there has been a passing game in Başakşehir's DNA; the club and the players are used to this game," he concluded.