Okoye: I’m Happy with My Performances Despite Five Goals Conceded

Nigeria goalkeeper Maduka Okoye says he is satisfied with his performances for Udinese at the start of the Serie A season despite conceding five goals in his team’s 5-2 defeat to Inter Milan at San Siro.

Okoye was speaking on TV 12’s Udinese Tonight programme a day after the defeat, which saw Udinese surrender an early lead as Inter produced a second-half comeback.

‘I’m happy with my performances, even if I can’t speak well of a game in which I conceded five goals,’ Okoye said.

The 27-year-old believes he is continuing to develop under Udinese goalkeeping coaches Sergio Marcon and Alex Brunner, who he credited with helping improve his confidence.

‘We are working hard, I feel that I am growing, Sergio and Alex are doing a great job. I know they have confidence in me and this also increases my self-confidence,’ he said.

Okoye added that he has made progress in several areas of his game but knows there is still room for improvement.

‘I can also make good saves, but the important thing is the points. I’m sure we’ll do them again. I improved a lot on both high and low outputs,’ he said.

‘To become a top goalkeeper I have to take a step forward in every aspect, but I have top coaches with me.’

The former Sparta Rotterdam and Watford goalkeeper was particularly disappointed by the fourth goal Udinese conceded against Inter.

‘The fourth goal is the one that bothers me the most. It’s easy to say it on TV, but we can’t concede a goal like that, even if it’s not an easy goal,’ he said.

‘It bothers me because we remained passive, but we had fought for 60 minutes, we had gone down, then they have a lot of quality.’

The defeat left Udinese with 10 goals conceded from their opening four league matches, a figure Okoye admits is too high.

‘Ten goals are a lot, we have to change something and we are working on it,’ he said.

‘The fact that the defence has changed almost every game is perhaps a reason for the goals conceded, but even if you change the players you should still do well. It must be said that we have played against strong teams so far.’

Okoye, however, does not believe the team should dwell on the San Siro setback and is already looking ahead to Saturday’s meeting with Cagliari.

‘The mood is still good. Inter is the past, now we are already thinking about the next one,’ he said.

‘We were believing in it, as always. Maybe we scored too early, then that’s football.’