Thiago Motta keeps Orsolini and Zirkzee on toes | OneFootball

Thiago Motta is keeping Bologna’s feet on the ground after the 2-0 win over Fiorentina, explaining where Riccardo Orsolini and Joshua Zirkzee still need to improve.

This was the rescheduled Serie A Week 21 fixture, moved so that the Viola could participate in the Supercoppa Italiana in Riyadh last month.

There were only two points separating them going into this showdown for fifth place and the Rossoblu emerged triumphant at the Stadio Dall’Ara thanks to goals from Orsolini and Jens Odgaard.

Orsolini also had another goal disallowed, as Stefan Posch was in an offside position interfering with play when he tried to get his head to the free kick, but Thiago Motta was still not happy.

“I saw some statistics from Orsolini’s game that I am not happy with and I will discuss it with him. We’ve been talking about it for a few weeks already and I am convinced he can improve,” the coach told DAZN.

“We won this match in the Bologna style, playing our football and always trying to be ourselves. Playing this well is what wins you games and we were rewarded. This reinforces our ideas and the confidence of this group.”

It was a midweek fixture and squad rotation was kept to a minimum, other than the goalkeeper, where Nicola Ravaglia was chosen instead of Lukasz Skorupski.

“I always said we are fortunate to have two extraordinary goalkeepers who work hard and deserve to play. They are fantastic lads too, they know either one can start, and Skorupski really helped Ravaglia during the warm-up.”

Zirkzee again failed to find the net and seemed irritated when he was substituted, while Odgaard has now found the net in both his substitute appearances.

“Every now and then Zirkzee can be determined in front of goal, as for example against Cagliari. Let us not forget he is very young, he does a lot of work off the ball to help the team and press the opponents.”

This result allows Bologna to catch Atalanta in joint fourth place, although La Dea still have a game in hand to be played against leaders Inter.

While Thiago Motta is still eager to keep their feet on the ground, he is starting to open up to greater ambition.

“There is a very long way to go. This was a great victory, now we have three days to prepare for Lazio, another very strong team.”