New Monaco boss Sébastien Pocognoli had some kinds words for Ansu Fati after his team’s goalless draw with Tottenham in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Monaco were the better team but couldn’t find the back
of the net against Thomas Frank’s side, with Fati playing 70 minutes of the match.
Pocognoli played down talk of tension with Fati ahead of the game, after his angry reaction at being substituted, and was quizzed on the Barcelona loanee again after the match.
The Monaco boss told Ansu he needs to be “more decisive and dangerous” to improve.
“We have a lot of quality between the lines, Mamadou also brings solutions at the back in terms of creativity and infiltration. I try to use tactical discipline to provoke this creativity and not the other way around. I think Maghnes had a lot of fun, while still performing well defensively. He was smiling at the end, even though he was inevitably disappointed,” he told reporters.
“It’s in this kind of match that they can shine individually. As for Ansu, he had a good match and is starting to gain momentum. The next step is to be decisive and even more dangerous, but I’m satisfied with his attitude.
“We will gain a lot more in the long term by playing like this. I prefer this to winning 1-0, but by defending for the whole match and showing nothing positive. Of course, we will need to gain points.”
After scoring six goals in five games for Monaco, Fati has now gone two games without finding the back of the net. He’ll be back in action on Saturday in Ligue 1 when Monaco take on Toulouse.
