Sporting Director Ivica Kralj on dugout changes

FK Partizan Sporting Director also spoke to Partizan website after appointment of the new Head Coach.

“Before anything, I`d like to thank Gordan Petric who took over when results were far from good, he added a lot of posivitity around. Unfortunately, recent results didn’t bode well and took its toll on his health, so here we are. Gratitude goes to Gordan for everything he`s done for the club, he`s a great coach and person. We`ll see each other on a regular basis and I hope Petric will be part of the club in the future”, said Ivica Kralj.

“When you are here at Partizan, there are many nice moments but there are bad days as well and we try to have them as least as possible but they are part of the package. Igor Duljaj is our new coach, first one since I took over sporting director post. It`s not ideal moment for him but you never arrive when the things are great, it`s always a result of something not working out properly”.

“We had two shocking results, something no one expected. Now, there`s a change and we expect player`s reaction to all this. Coach will try to change thing before the derby game, as much as he can and I `m sure this shock therapy can bring some positive results.  We looked really good against Sheriff for some 20 minutes and one blunder changed things completely. It will take some time before we analyze everything that happened over the last two weeks. I`m always positive and I have faith in this team. We are talking about players who beat Koln twice, matched Nice. This is a good team but there`s obviously a psychological problem around. We have to do everything to get them to pick up. Once again, I wish all the luck to Igor, he`ll need it. Duljaj has the skills and quality to improve Partizan game”.

“I believe we can get through this and play a good derby game, get a good result. Players need to be calm and I believe they can win it. I played in 22 Eternal derbies and I know all about it – even when we were huge favourites to win, we wouldn`t win and vice-versa”.

“Let`s go through the derby game, let`s see how that`s going to finish. It`s a fact we are way behind league leaders but we still have our aims,  we have to get ready this team for upcoming summer and CL qualifiers”, said Ivica Kralj.