Kökçü Not at 100 Percent, Poku Ill: Italiano's Team Update With Returns Tied to Celtic

The picture Vincenzo Italiano painted in his pre-match press conference is short but significant: Orkun Kökçü is not at 100 percent right now, and Ernest Poku is out of the squad through illness. The return timeline the coach offered for both points in a single direction — the target is a comeback around the European fixture against Celtic. On Kökçü specifically, Italiano added that he hopes the player returns after Celtic. Notably, the coach hedged throughout: 'may' in one place, 'hopes' in another. At no point was it stated that either player would definitively be back on a given date. The first part of the press conference dealt with the upcoming match. Italiano opened by praising the opposition. In his words, the side they face is in good form, defensively solid, and arrives on the back of a win. He referenced their recent performance against Başakşehir in the same breath. The coach's conclusion was blunt: this will not be an easy game. One clarification is needed here — the material that has been published contains no tactical detail. No formation, no set-piece plan, no approach to the game. That does not mean the coach said nothing on those subjects; it means the available material is limited to team news and mentality. The word 'difficult' returns four times in Italiano's remarks. The repetition is not accidental. Before a match a team is expected to win, emphasising difficulty is a familiar device — it pre-emptively lowers the cost of a poor result and simultaneously justifies the demands that follow. Immediately after, the coach's tone shifts. He shows respect outward and imposes requirements inward. The language makes the pivot visible: the words of obligation arrive when the subject turns to his own side. On the league, the coach said it is not easy, that every team fights, and that no match is decided in advance. In the same breath he made an uncomfortable admission about his team's away form — they have not achieved good results on the road. Volunteering that in a press conference is unusual. Coaches usually raise a weakness when it connects directly to the fixture ahead. If today's match is away, the line functions as a prepared excuse. If it is at home, it is ordinary self-criticism. The available material does not establish which. Italiano then moved to motivation and table pressure. He said the team won its last game, wants to win today, and must stay near the top. He added that the teams at the top are winning consistently, so his side must do the same. That sentence reveals a good deal on its own: the coach sees his team as a chaser, not as the leader. He is monitoring results above him and handing his own side the obligation to keep pace. It is rational team management, but it also shows the team does not fully control its own position. On team news, the first name is Ernest Poku. The coach said he is ill and therefore not part of the squad. He added that he hopes Poku will be available for Celtic. Note that even here there is no firm promise — the coach said he thinks Poku may feature in that match. Caution around illness is understandable, but with a congested calendar it is a fair question whether other players are affected. The available material neither asks nor answers it. The second and more discussed name is Orkun Kökçü. Italiano stated plainly that Kökçü is not at 100 percent. He also said no unnecessary risk was taken — meaning the player was not put on the pitch before he was fully ready. The coach said he will return when fully fit, and that he hopes this happens after Celtic. One detail matters here: 'no unnecessary risk was taken' is a medical-protocol statement, not purely a football one. It indicates the return decision is being made against a threshold — typically seen with a muscle injury or a post-injury load restriction rather than a knock or illness. Reading anything further into it would be unsafe; the available remarks do not establish the nature of the problem. The coach described Kökçü as a 'very important' player. The praise is genuine, but it must be read alongside the rest — he is ruling out the same player he is calling very important. Public praise of that kind creates mild return pressure on both the player and the medical staff. This is a recurring pattern and should be treated as a subtext of the remarks, not as a claim about the coach's intent. One more thing needs saying. The headline under which these remarks were published states that Kökçü is not at 100 percent. That is not factually wrong, but it selects the most alarming fragment and drops the reassuring timeline around it — that the player will be back at 100 percent, and that the hope is after Celtic. Read whole, the quotes are reassuring; read as a headline, they are not. The headline also omits Poku entirely, even though the two absences belong to one story. Put the two updates together and the real story emerges. The team faces fixture congestion — a domestic or league match now, then Celtic, then the next league game. Both absentees are expected to miss the Celtic fixture as well, meaning the team will go into the most demanding match of the sequence with a depleted squad. Squad depth is the actual subject, and the available material never states it directly. Finally, the limits of this report should be kept clear. Every remark is attributed to a single speaker, Italiano, so attribution is strong. But the material contains no fixture name, no date, no venue, no scoreline, no table position and no second source. It is also possible that the material reached us through translation, so the quotes should be read as the coach's stated position rather than his verbatim words. What is said here is therefore limited to what the coach stated; claims about table position, the seriousness of the away form and fixture congestion are inferences drawn from his remarks, not established facts. What is certain is this: two players are unavailable now, and both are being targeted for a return around the Celtic fixture.