VINCENZO MONTELLA: VICTORY HAS MANY FATHERS, DEFEAT IS AN ORPHAN

The Turkey A National Football Team, which could not meet with a victory at the end of the first 2 matches in the UEFA Nations League A, will face Belgium, having 3 points, away on Friday at 21.45. Speaking at the press conference held before this tough struggle, manager Vincenzo Montella made direct statements about his squad choices and the criticisms directed at the team.

Answering the questions about Enes Unal returning from injury and not calling players from the second league, the Italian coach used the expressions, "I invited Enes Unal to the National Team last, he experienced 2 serious injuries. Enes Unal is a very valuable and very important footballer for us. We follow him closely, I watch his matches. But we should not rush immediately, we need to wait a bit because he stayed away from football for a long time. Frankly, we follow the second league too. We invited a goalkeeper to the team from there too. If I did not invite Kemal Ruzgar for now, it is because I think he is not ready for these levels. We try to do the best for the National Team."

Reacting to the criticisms against the footballers, the experienced coach continued his words as follows: "I know the pride of the Turkish people very well. This is not a flaw, having this pride is power. The only thing that disturbs me is that there are attacks on our footballers, so to speak. As if there was someone else for 3 years and he brought us to this level, we did not come. Our footballers here represent their country in the best way. When something happens, I warn them, just as it happened at half-time in the Italy match. When criticisms are made against me, it does not affect me much in this regard. But when too much criticism is made against my footballers, while they try to represent their country very well in so much struggle, I do not think they deserve so much criticism. Victory has a thousand fathers. Defeat is an orphan."

Also touching upon his own private life and the team's situation in the A League, Montella completed the meeting by saying, "Unfortunately, this summer became a painful summer for me. Because I experienced painful events within my own family too, I cannot say I spent a very beautiful summer. We should not put the pressure of winning every match on our players. We need to put forward the right performance. We will get the results we want after the right performance anyway. Tactically, there are not many changes. We will play with a team ranking 8th in the FIFA rankings. How we perform in the A League without focusing on the results is important. I do not want to talk about the missing players. One of our footballers playing 2 Champions Leagues in the last 3-4 years is absent. His absence is felt. I can say Kenan, I can say Orkun... We always need to be balanced while sharing our thoughts. Our team is not used to the A League. We need to gain this habit. The first half of the Italy match was very, very bad. But we showed a strong reaction in the second half."

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