In the press room at Orogel Stadium-Dino Manuzzi, Coach Alessandro Diamanti previewed the Cesena FC vs. US Catanzaro match, part of Matchday 11 of the 2026/27 Serie BKT season, scheduled for Saturday, November 7, at 3:00 p.m. at Orogel Stadium-Dino Manuzzi.
“Catanzaro is a strong team that deserves respect, with a solid core of players who came close to promotion to Serie A last year. It may seem like they’re going through a rough patch, but I don’t see it that way: these are just rough patches that can happen. I don’t know Mignani personally, but I’ve been following Serie B for as long as I can remember, and he’s a coach who’s done well wherever he’s gone. I hold everyone in high regard and respect them all, and I want the guys to put on the best performance of their lives tomorrow—just as I ask them to do every Sunday—because we’ll need a strong showing against a team that will certainly come out fighting. That much is certain.”
“The lack of clean sheets? We work extremely hard on our defense; in particular, Romano pays close attention to every detail with great intensity and expertise. It’s not a burden, but it’s an area we need to improve—it’s something a defender must have in his DNA and that needs to be drilled during the week in every training exercise. That’s where you build the determination not to concede. I always tell the defenders that they have to keep repeating to themselves in their heads that they don’t want to concede anything. They have to be frustrated even when they let in a goal in practice. If you have that attitude and that mindset during the week, then it all carries over into the game. It’s a process—you have to work at it and believe in it. They’ve been briefed on this aspect as well: it’s a matter of attitude.”
“For me, whether a player starts in the first minute or the fiftieth doesn’t really change anything. That’s what I try to get the guys to understand every day, and that’s why I want everyone to be on their toes—because in today’s soccer, you can make a decisive impact in twenty minutes, half an hour, or even just a few seconds. That’s when you have to be ready, because those are the moments when I judge a player—not based on whether he starts from the beginning or comes on in the 47th or 80th minute. Players have to be ready, because they work all week for exactly this reason, and then they’re judged by their performance.”
The full press conference of Coach Diamanti is available on Cesena FC’s YouTube channel:
