"Pressapochism": Rino Gattuso and staff, what a broadside from Maurizio Pistocchi
On CRC, radio partner of SSC Napoli, during the “Calciomania” program, journalist and pundit Maurizio Pistocchi spoke. “Italy has long produced insufficient soccer, with little quality and unexceptional performers. In club teams, 75% of the players are foreigners and this helps us understand the moment of our soccer – he noted -. For the coach of the national team, it is difficult to create a team and in any case Gattuso was not, in my opinion, experienced enough to play this role. Even before Bastoni was sent off, we were in trouble; we had conceded 13 shots and had made just 2.”
“The choice to take off some penalty takers before the end of regulation time? You had to take into consideration that extra time could have ended in a draw and prepare for penalties. In this affair there is a rather embarrassing pressapochism on everyone’s part. With Gravina’s resignation everything is not solved, as the president is just an image man, we need to re-found the soccer system.”
“There is talk of new figures but the candidates are Malagò and Abete, who are 70 and 77 years old respectively. I would suggest a different structure; in my opinion the president should be an image man, like Baggio or Maldini, a figure who is recognized abroad, gets respect, and who knows the problems of soccer to solve them. Then there needs to be a general manager, a manager with proven experience, like Michele Uva, now Uefa vice-president, who has worked in various sports circles, writing important books like ‘Money vs. Ideas,’ which is really about soccer. Finally, there would need to be a sports director, who would choose the coach and coordinate the selection of players. We should create federal centers, a minimum of 2 for each region, where boys are called up and coached by professionals.”
“We need to move toward the soccer of the future, not look to the past. We should look at figures like Oliver Bierhoff, who saved Germany with a good project after the disastrous 2000 European Championship. We do not need to change just one man to save Italian soccer; just think that in Serie A 16 teams play with the 5-3-2, a system of play that has never won anything in Europe in the last 20 years. We should copy from the best, such as Portugal, which with 10 million inhabitants trains very strong footballers, exporting them all over the world.”
“The team that in recent years in Serie A, has proven to play more European soccer, has been Napoli with Sarri and Spalletti, as Guardiola also said some time ago. Guardiola as post-Gattuso? In this situation why would such a coach come to coach the national team? Napoli, Milan and Inter, none of these teams have an Italian starting striker. The first thing the government and the new federal president should do is to have a gentlemen’s agreement with the clubs so that they cannot have more than 5 foreign members and have at least 4 players from Serie B or the youth sector in the first team. If the Vergaras of the situation blossom at the age of 23, something is wrong.”
