Fabregas: ‘Juventus gave Como a dose of reality’ in Serie A | OneFootball

Cesc Fabregas admits Como received a ‘dose of reality’ with their Serie A opener, defeated 3-0 by Juventus. ‘Anyone who thinks we’re aiming for the Champions League has it badly wrong.’

It was the first Serie A match in Como’s history for 21 years, as they went bankrupt only recently and worked their way back from Serie D, with Fabregas first as a player and then a coach to gain promotion from Serie B.

They had a very tough opening trip to the Allianz Juventus Stadium in Turin, falling 3-0 to goals from Samuel Mbangula, Timothy Weah and Andrea Cambiaso, while the woodwork and the offside flag combined to deny Dusan Vlahovic on three occasions.

“I have to rewatch the game and analyse carefully what we need to do. Last season we lost 3-0 to Palermo, but went on to become the best team in the league. We know that we are Como and need to improve, so what we saw was the difference in quality and a bit of confidence,” Fabregas told DAZN.

“We won back the ball and couldn’t get the right pass for the counter-attack, whereas they did make the most of those chances. We also gave the ball away too easily to the likes of Kenan Yildiz. That’s not tactics, that is individual quality.

“We had eight players from last season, we are the same team and need to just work hard and relax. Anyone who thinks we’re aiming for the Champions League this season has got it very badly wrong. We know who we are, we need to take it one step at a time, because this is a long-term process.”

Como have been very unlucky with injuries so far this season, as they lost Raphael Varane 20 minutes into the Coppa Italia exit to Sampdoria.

Fabregas warning to Como supporters

This time, they saw Daniele Baselli limp off, followed by Oliver Abildgaard, who was only six minutes into his Serie A debut when felled by a Manuel Locatelli tackle. Fabregas saw that as the moment it all went wrong.

“I got the sensation it was more about quality than anything else, because when Baselli was on the pitch, I didn’t see any difference between the teams. Baselli has quality, timing, character, that is what I am talking about.

“We played friendlies against Wolfsburg, Las Palmas, Cagliari, Al-Hilal and Wolverhampton, we competed well. We need to keep going like this, but it’s true we are lacking something in quality and confidence. I don’t know if it’s courage or what.”

When Abildgaard limped off, Como had to shake things up and moved to 4-3-3. Can that be a way forward for them this season?

“Of course, we want to play with two strikers, but it is good to learn that at times this isn’t a bad idea. If we can be just as aggressive and dangerous, but with a slightly different profile, that’s something to try. We changed the system to try to hurt Juve, Oliver won the ball back twice and was causing problems, but then he got injured,” continued Fabregas.

“Today we did not give what we wanted to, but it was a dose of reality, because this is the level of Serie A and we must improve.”

Como have been extremely active on the transfer market already, but will they try to bring more players in?

“The day after the last game when we earned promotion into Serie A, I was very clear on what we need for this squad. We don’t want to bring someone in who is not suited to our playing style. If we want to play open football, then we cannot lose the ball the way we did today. We need calm, patience and a cool head,” concluded Fabregas.