the interview
Torino
The Serie A classification as the DeLorean of the film “Back to the Future”: a journey through time, in the second half of the Eighties, when Napoli and Milan were competing for the Scudetto. Arrigo Sacchi, Rossoneri coach of the time, the man who revolutionized our football, looks back and sees Maradona and Van Basten again, leafs through vivid memories, frames those of the 1987-’88 championship: “At San Siro he finished 4-1 : we understood our strength because we did not simply win, but we drowned them. And on our return, after having made our own a play-off match, we went out to the applause of the public, which is very rare ». The memory of 1989-’90, Italy’s record and fierce controversies over the referees is less sweet: «Do you know what Enzo Ferrari was saying? The Italians forgive everything, but not success ».
Sacchi, how do you see Napoli today?
«Against Bologna he made a great impression on me, I liked him less in Salerno. To win a championship you must have a normality of performance and commitment: if Napoli has it, they will fight to the end because they have good young players, good experience, a wide and quality squad ».
AC Milan?
«On paper he is not the strongest, but he plays football closest to internationality, besides he is a team in spirit and this helps him to be in the game. Alongside the interesting young people, there are two or three mature elements who, however, retain enthusiasm and generosity. They have suffered several injuries, it can happen, but we hope that bad luck does not persist: Pioli would suffer, he does not have a squad like that of Napoli ».
Despite a football in his international opinion, the AC Milan Championships are stingy.
“It means that the growth is not complete, but it must also be said that the path has not been easy: in addition to Atletico Madrid and Liverpool, in the group there is Porto that not coincidentally, a year ago, kicked out Juve: the Portuguese eleven of them play, they are polyvalent, they move without thinking because they have automated their movements ».
Football in its image.
«To remain an attractive sport it must be like this. And intertwining modesty, enthusiasm, selflessness, passion and intelligence. You always have to know what to do, whether to play short or long, left or right. Today Italy’s standard-bearer is Atalanta, where everyone participates in the maneuver, other than wasting players only for the defensive phase. So it happens that Gasperini’s team touches the victory with Manchester United which allows themselves to take Cavani, Van der Beek or Sancho off the bench for 85 million ”.
Milan has an added value: Ibrahimovic.
«God gave him a lot and didn’t always take advantage of it, because he thought it was enough for him, but today he plays for the team and is made up for in the collective. Extraordinary, perhaps with Inter he could have been sought a little more. Generally speaking, it is difficult to find an experienced footballer who knows how to be generous and intelligent: I had Frosio in Rimini, a past in Serie A that didn’t matter, once he came to train with a fever of 39 ».
Is Maldini executive a surprise?
«Only for those who do not know him: he is very good, not good. Positive, proactive, has culture and knowledge. And he is well helped by Massara ».
Tell us about Spalletti and Pioli.
«Spalletti has always been a good coach, he just gave the feeling of not being able to express himself fully. Pioli now gives a style of his own: you couldn’t see it before, they could have been everyone’s teams. He has to carry it on to the end, however: with Atletico Madrid, ten left, an “Italian” coach is back, out of the attackers and all defenders and midfielders. I believe I have never lost in ten to eleven, not even in the World Cup. And I have always defended style: if I hadn’t done it, if I had sought compromises, I had listened to the players who, at the end of blocked matches, asked to throw the balls in the area to take advantage of the aerial game, my Milan would not have received so many prestigious awards ».
Naples and Milan at the top. A two-way deal, or is Inter also for the Scudetto?
“There is for sure. He does not have the courage of Milan, but as an individual quality he is superior ».
Juve in sensational delay. What happens?
«Allegri has not found all his players, others have arrived in his management and perhaps some are functional to his ideas. It can go back up because the staff remains one of the best, if not the best ».
In general, Italian football is changing: from Juric to Italian there is a generation of coaches who study and dare, the offensive attitude has almost extinguished the zero to zero.
“Is the first time. And it is a satisfaction. In 2014, watching the Under 21 team against Denmark, Costacurta told me: “Mister they copied us everywhere except in Italy”. I replied that this is the way we are, that we try to make a living, but now, finally, something has changed ».
Tudor, one of the symbols of the new course, argues that the fans are increasingly demanding and do not want to see teams that are behind and suffer. However, he adds that his football would be difficult to propose to Ronaldo: how did you approach the champions?
“Mine hadn’t exploded yet, that’s how I wanted them. When Rush arrived at Juve and Van Basten with us, the successful champion was the Welshman ».
You were a forerunner of the good game.
«I suffered when the foreign customers of my father’s shoe factories in Fusignano branded us, chatting, as defensiveists. On the other hand, in the football dictionary there were only two Italian words: catenaccio and libero. And I did not understand the thesis of an illustrious journalist according to which we had to defend ourselves and hit, not attack, because we ate polenta and not meat. Why, then, did we push ourselves in athletics or boxing? When in 1989, after scoring 5 goals against Real Madrid, on the eve of the European Cup final with Steaua Bucharest, the critics suggested “waiting for them and fowling them”, Gullit told me: “We attack them from the first second as long as we are in feet. And so it was”.
A symbol of the metamorphosis is Mancini’s national team, winner of the European Championship with no suspicions of defensiveness.
«Mancini is a hero: in a championship with 70% of foreigners he selected an excellent group and gave us a style of play, leading us to win in Europe after years of nothing. Friday will have an important junction with Switzerland: I hope the team will arrive in good shape ». –
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