It’s important that players are prepared physically

- Marco, tell us about yourself, what are your functions?

- I'm a fitness coach. With Vincenzo Teresa and Agostino Tibaudi, we are like one team. Mister demands that the players have an optimum physical form, so we coordinate our work with him.

- How and when did your collaboration with Roberto De Zerbi begin?

- It happened seven years ago, when De Zerbi worked at Foggia. I started working during Roberto’s second season in the team, at the same time we teamed up with Vincenzo Teresa. After Foggia, we continued working together at Palermo and Benevento, later moving to Sassuolo where Agostino Tibaudi joined us.

- How did you react to your move to Ukraine and work with Shakhtar?

- We knew some facts about Shakhtar Donetsk previously - that this is a legendary club playing in Europe, therefore it’s a great honour for us to work here. I experienced some special emotions after moving to Kyiv. Even after spending a couple of days in Kyiv, we already saw that it’s a wonderful city.

- What can you say about the level of Shakhtar players, what ‘s their current physical form?

- On June 14, we started working with the players, but initially training wasn’t that intense, it was light. We know that all the guys are professionals, they will give their one hundred percent. This is important for us because whenever the workload increases, we are sure that the player will fulfil their potential to the maximum. We’ve carried out several tests and know the level of each player now, we can plan the work. This is a normal process as the players vacationed. We will make every effort to properly prepare them for the season and to ensure that everyone is ready for the first match in the best possible way.

- You approach each player individually. Does it depend on the position on the field or does fitness come to the fore?

- You may have noticed that we do lots of ballwork. That’s important, but we also have a goal - to increase the workload to improve the players’ fitness. Each of them has their own position, and based on that we can plan the work. We know all the players, their parameters, and therefore we can organize individual sessions for everyone to raise their level.

- What are your nearest coaching goals?

- It’s important to be physically ready between July 20 and July 24, before the season’s first games. I’d love to start the year with some positive things, but for this it’s necessary that the team are prepared.

- What would you wish Shakhtar fans?