Fabregas: ‘Nico Paz must learn to live with pressure’ if he wants Real Madrid

Cesc Fabregas is ‘surprised’ to see Fiorentina in the relegation zone and insists Como star Nico Paz must learn to ‘live with pressure if he is to play for Real Madrid.’

It kicks off at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia on Saturday at 14.00 GMT (15.00 CET).

This is a very busy time for the Lariani, who are fresh off a stunning Coppa Italia quarter-final victory over Napoli, which had to be decided in a sudden death penalty shoot-out at the Stadio Maradona.

Coming up on Wednesday is their rescheduled Serie A trip to Milan, which was moved from last weekend due to San Siro being used for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

Fabregas taking Como to new heights

“We know that having extra time affords us the ability to work on certain dynamics that you cannot with just two training sessions per week,” confessed Fabregas in his press conference.

“Everyone studies their opponents in football, we are finding a sense of consistency and doing a few different things too, so the details count, but the whole team has contributed to this success.”

Tomorrow’s opponents Fiorentina had expected to be challenging Como for the European places, but instead find themselves locked in the relegation zone.

“Fiorentina remain a very important club and a great squad, even as a Spaniard I know that Fiorentina are famous. I realise it is a surprise to see where they are in the table, but the same 9-10 players had a great campaign last year,” noted Fabregas.

“It is a fine line between success and failure, the club invested so much and built the Viola Park training complex too. We’ll face them with the mentality of wanting to win, as I am sure they will too.”

The coach had already been approached by Inter last summer and has caught the eye of many more big clubs thanks to Como’s performances, so how satisfied is he with his progress?

“Satisfied is not a word that I have in my dictionary,” he replied.

“You can always do more. I am happy, I see players respond and we are creating something good here. Ahead of the penalties the other day, I felt this energy, everyone was connected and involved, even those who weren’t playing. I am pleased to see the growth of the club in general.”

Just before the penalty shoot-out, Fabregas took Nico Paz off, so was that to spare him the drama of missing another spot-kick after failing three out of three?

“No, I just wanted to avoid counter-attacks for the last 10-15 minutes. I am never afraid, so if Nico misses 10 penalties, I won’t take him off because of that.

“If he is going to play for Real Madrid, he’s going to have to live with a lot more pressure on his shoulders. After all, Ivan Smolcic had never taken a penalty, but he has great strength of character and I see him in training. I liked the idea of changing the characteristics that Milinkovic-Savic was facing.”

Edoardo Goldaniga and Assane Diao are still out of action, while Alvaro Morata is expected to be on the bench.