Alessio Lisci: “I empathize with the fans, I apologize, and I promise we will give everything to change this”

Osasuna head coach Alessio Lisci addressed the media after the 3–1 loss to Real Sociedad at El Sadar. “I empathize deeply with the fans, and if needed, I’ll apologize to them. But I promise that if I’m already working 20 hours a day, I’ll work 24 and sleep at Tajonar. I can’t do more than that. But they should know we will give everything, even if it’s not easy right now, because neither the players nor I want this. We will kill ourselves to change it.”

The Italian coach commented on the mood of the team by saying that players are “hurting, because they feel the colors and they feel the fans deserve more — just like Ido. The team’s emotional state is the same as mine: unease, because we aren’t doing things as badly as our form or our position suggests, and that creates frustration.”

“On the other hand, we all want to do more — I want to do more, the team wants to do more — and we aren’t managing to turn it around. The locker room is fantastic, very united, and the staff as well. Today, some players wanted to give something extra for me and for the staff because we’ve built an incredible group, and that’s what hurts me the most,” he said.

“At this moment, it’s a situation that hurts because the group is fantastic. They work, they put in the effort, we live at Tajonar, the fans are fantastic and support us. So when the game ends and you lose, what hurts the most is everything around us that should be working. Sadly, it isn’t. It’s our responsibility — mine first — to change this. It has to change one way or another.”

Regarding the match, Lisci analyzed, “It’s a defeat that hurts and extends a bad run, and it’s clear this isn’t good.”

“I think we need to explain it well and separate what happens strictly on the field from everything else,” he said. “If we analyze it coldly, the first half is one in which we should have gone into the break 2–0 up. We had three clear chances plus the goal. In the second half, we were controlling it well. We made one adjustment to deal with Real Sociedad’s press, because every time they broke our pressure, they created danger, and their first goal comes from a deflection — in these negative stretches, they score with almost nothing.

“After the goal, those minutes weren’t good from us. They scored the second, then we reacted with [midfielder] Rubén’s [García]entrance. We had a chance from Rubén, another from [midfielder] Aimar to get back into the game, and then they score a crazy goal, plus the red card, and the game blows up.”

The 40-year-old added that “obviously we can’t be calm. That’s why we need to analyze what happened on the field with a cool head, but we also need to analyze other things — our streak, our position in the table. We need to do more, starting with me. We have to work, get up, and change the dynamic however we can and as soon as possible. So even if the strict football analysis says one thing, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re doing things wrong — and I’m the first one.”