Douvikas and Como: Fabregas Teaches His Players to Keep a Cold Head Amid Champions League Fever

"This is the most fragile moment." Tasos Douvikas said it minutes after Como opened their Champions League campaign with a three-goal win. He had just scored. The stands had just chanted his name. And he chose to talk about risk.

On this opening matchday, only Bayern, PSG, Barcelona, Manchester United and Como won by three goals or more. Put that list side by side two years ago and people would have assumed a printing error. Football does not misprint. It only records what happened, even when it upends the old order.

What made me stop was not the scoreline but the next question from Gazzetta dello Sport: what did Fabregas tell you in the dressing room before the match? The answer was short, and it contained an entire philosophy of the job.

Douvikas arrived at Como when he was still a name most Vietnamese viewers had to look up. Last season he finished Serie A as joint runner-up in the scoring charts behind Lautaro Martinez, level with Malen. This season: three goals in four games. Add last season and it becomes six in the last nine. For a striker, that is the consistency sporting directors call a slow-depreciating asset.

Fabregas, meanwhile, does not change how he prepares a match. According to Douvikas, that very constancy is what keeps the squad sharp. "As always, he asked us for courage, focus and the personality to play the way we know how." I have sat through many training sessions at clubs led by great midfielders. They do not teach football with a tactics board. They teach by standing in the middle of the pitch and demonstrating.

What Fabregas is building at Como is not a counter-attacking machine. Douvikas says his coach stresses three things: aggression, intelligence and possession football. "He insists on imposing our game."

That is where the analysis gets interesting. Imposing your game in Serie A is a gamble. Italian defenders are not afraid of being pinned back; they are afraid of being dragged out of position. A team that dares to hold the ball against an Italian-organised block pushes itself into a harder problem: breaking structure rather than chasing space.

Douvikas on Serie A defenders: "Very strong, both physically and tactically, so you always have to know how to read the situation." Roma's Ndicka called him the most awkward opponent. He answered by naming Chalobah, Ramon and Kempf, the men he faces every day in training. "Joking aside, there are lots of strong defenders in Italy. I like duels that keep you switched on for 90 minutes."

That small detail says a lot. A striker is valued not for his goals but for his capacity to endure discomfort. Serie A tests a forward with patience before it judges him on scoring.

On his partnership with Moise Kean, Douvikas is blunt: "We are both physical and look to run in behind, but we have different characteristics. We can play together precisely because we complement each other." Behind them sit the two names that matter most this season: Paz and Baturina. Douvikas calls it quality combined with intelligence. A striker like him does not need beautiful balls. He needs balls arriving at the right moment.

On the new signings, he mentions Luis and his big personality, then adds that everyone who has arrived has settled in quickly, "and that explains how this group and this environment work". Milla even wore the armband against Leipzig when Da Cunha went off.

Douvikas keeping himself out of the spotlight is a piece of data, not just a personality trait. "I try to remain myself. I focus on my work, I spend a lot of time at the training ground. The enthusiasm is nice, it gives us energy, but there is a risk it distracts you and goes to your head." He still plays billiards, still mentions his cat Grace, and says that in Italy he has discovered what it feels like to live football with this passion every day.

Here I have to say something plainly, even knowing Como fans will not enjoy hearing it.

Italian media are framing a story in which only Como and Roma can trouble Inter. Douvikas refuses it: "It really is too early to have these kinds of discussions." That is a diplomatic answer, and also the correct one.

The problem for a team that explodes early is never the opponent. It is themselves. Young teams do not collapse because they are beaten; they collapse because they start believing the story about themselves. That is why Douvikas's phrase about keeping concentration levels high matters more than any goal.

In the summer of Russia, Neymar never broke his leg, but the rumour broke the entire commentary box. The same story is unfolding here, only at a different scale. One three-goal win, and suddenly people are talking about the Scudetto. Serie A has never handed the trophy to the prettiest team in October.

The Douvikas-Kean narrative has been blown out of proportion too. He says: "I have total faith in the manager's ability to use his players, and Moise and I are focused only on the team." At my age, I no longer hunt news; I hunt the truth lying at the bottom of rumours. The truth here is simple: two strikers with different characteristics, and that is exactly why they can play together rather than clash.

For Douvikas, everything comes down to consistency. Three goals in four games. Six in nine. Runner-up in last season's scoring charts. Insiders never say everything, but they leave fingerprints on every negotiation, and Douvikas's fingerprint is composure.

Behind every contract is a human destiny, not a number. Como bought a striker who knows how to score. More valuably, they now have a man who knows the Champions League is not won in September but in April. And Fabregas, through every answer his player gives, emerges as a teacher who never changes his method. Courage, focus, personality. Those three words cannot be bought in the transfer market. They can only be taught.