Salvation does not wait. Estra, a feat is needed. Away match against Tortona without captain Della Rosa

The calendar of theStra it's not the easiest and we've already said it. After Brescia and Trento the red and whites face today Tortona (17:30), a very tricky team, which is playing an excellent season. "In these eight games we will have to do a great job – says Gasper Okorn – Brescia and Trento were two difficult matches but so is Tortona who is coming off an excellent result with the home win against Aek and if they don't make any mistakes with Wurzburg they will qualify for the Champions League and therefore for us it will be a very complex match. Our schedule is difficult from here to the end so we know that we have to give our all in every match, we know that given the conditions we are in at the moment everything has to go in a certain direction and we have to channel the match in a certain way and even the incidents have to help us".

Tortona, as other teams have done, will aim to remove Forrest and Pachall from the game so as not to give Pistoia points of reference, on the other hand Estra will have to try to identify the opponents' weak points on which to leverage. "It is difficult to identify a weak point of Tortona - continues Okorn - because they have ten players capable of contributing not only the quintet but also those who come off the bench can give a big hand, I think of Denegri and Baldasso two players who can light up and change the game. We know that they will adapt to Forrest and Pachall because now the teams are doing this to take away our points of reference and we will have to adapt and at the same time be smart to lower the pace because we cannot afford to run, risk losing the ball or take counterattacks because we do not have the numerical players to be able to do so. Control the pace, be good at changing defenses and adapt to situations on the field given the emergency situation in which we find ourselves for the umpteenth time".

Pistoia, as if that wasn't enough, finds itself without its captain who is out with a backache. "Della Rosa won't play tomorrow because he has a backache - explains Okorn -, he already had it in Trento, he played through the pain but in the third quarter, when he took a hit, he took another hit and we decided to avoid further problems and we gave him ten days of rest and therapy and we hope to recover him for the home game against Trieste. I'm happy with the work the guys are doing and the team chemistry that there is now".

At the moment a reinforcement from the market has arrived, now we await the second as said by president David even if everything is still to be decided. "At the moment we have not yet decided whether we will go looking for a player closer to the basket or on the perimeter - says Okorn - we will see what the market will offer and above all what Allen will give us and how the team will adapt to his arrival and then if there is an opportunity after having spoken with Sambugaro and the president we will eventually make this choice. I would like to say that this is how the market and the construction of the team goes, that is, the president and the sports director give the availability of the budget and identify names and then they are proposed to the coach and we all talk about it together to decide which is the right choice. If it had been done like this since the summer and not a single person decides without consulting anyone, Pistoia certainly would not be in this situation in the standings".

Maurizio Innocenti