The manager's press conference following two crucial victories at the helm of the Grifone"We can’t go into the winter break without a positive result because we’re not safe yet," said Daniele De Rossi, Genoa’s manager, at a press conference ahead of the match against Udinese on matchday 30 of the league season. "If we play a match where our commitment is evident, the stadium will get behind us and make everything seem easier. Playing at home with the atmosphere of recent matches would be a huge advantage for us.""It’s great to be back on the pitch when you’ve won your last match and when the last image of your stadium is one of celebration. Regardless of everything we’re saying, what must remain clear is that we’re not safe yet. There are still plenty of points to go. We’re on the right track towards safety but we’re not there yet, and the lads know that."NORTON-CUFFY – "He’s doing well. Sabelli played so well against Roma that I couldn’t leave him out. Like the others, he’s a ‘victim’ of the decisions I make based on what I see. But he’s a player with a bright and promising future."BALDANZI AND ONANA - "They’re both fine. Tommaso has been training regularly with us and getting excellent results. I wanted him in the squad for Verona but I knew he couldn’t play because he’d had little training. He can start, he can’t play the whole match but he’s fine. Onana twisted his ankle right in front of me a week ago; yesterday he was feeling quite well. We’ll see today and if he’s fit we’ll take him on the bench.”MARCANDALLI - "When you get results like this, certain things are going better than before. It starts with the players’ individual performances, and then there are certain paths that follow their own natural course. Marcandalli was born in 2002; he’s gained experience in Serie B and Serie A. He impressed me straight away. There are paths that cross, coaches and players who get on well. The player is showing more consistency; he’s more composed. He’s a player who understands everything and has the physical qualities of a Champions League player, of the type of player in vogue right now. He needs to work on his ball control and his reading of the game a bit. But his physicality is that of defenders at Arsenal or Chelsea. He reminds me of Rudiger’s early years at Roma, a raw player but one who was physically a force of nature."BALDANZI - "We plan our match strategy based on the opposition. Udinese have four or five players of the very highest calibre, players who will soon be playing for top-tier teams in Serie A and Europe. We’ve got Baldanzi back, so we need to focus on the match; we’ll be facing very strong players capable of turning the game on its head, much like Verona, but with better quality than Hellas. We’ll need to play as a team; at the ‘Bentegodi’, it paid off not to underestimate the opposition. We mustn’t make that mistake at home.”"I think that far too often, when we coaches lose in Europe, Italian youth football ends up in the firing line. Inter reached the Champions League final last year, Barcelona have achieved so much, yet their youth setup remains the same. Football is changing, and it will continue to change. We ourselves will change. In just a few years, I’ve changed my mind about the kind of player I’d like to have. Then there’s the fact that you lose narrowly to Bayern Munich because they have players worth 50, 60 or 70 million, players they’ve scouted from youth academies all over the world. We shouldn’t be putting anyone on trial, least of all Atalanta, who went to play a respectable Champions League round of 16 tie and lost to a stronger side. Turning to the national team, we need to be less critical and more like true fans. If things go badly, there’ll be an uproar and there’ll be time to talk about Gravina, Gattuso and Buffon. Now we’re playing Northern Ireland, and if we get through, we’ll face Wales and Bosnia – and I don’t think their youth academies are any better than ours. Now we should stop passing the buck and say a few more words to Rino.”Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting