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CM EXCLUSIVE Prandelli’s Piece: “Garcia is trying out too many formations”
Even the big clubs are scared. These words best resume last night’s clash between Inter and Juventus. It proved, if anything, how both sides are still looking for the right mix. I’m convinced that both the Nerazzurri and the Bianconeri will compete for the Scudetto, but at the moment both sides depend too much on individual players. Allegri tends to bet on Juan Cuadrado’s one-on-one dribbling skills whilst doing little to support the attack from midfield, whilst Mancini, for his part, has put a lot of emphasis on Stefan Jovetic’s talents, and relies on him to work between the lines to create overlaps.
Napoli and Fiorentina’s football has impressed me far more. Both sides offer something new, something different. They already have a philosophy, so they’re well aware of their own means and are more confident than other teams. Marek Hamsik had a fantastic game as a box-to-box midfielder in Sarri’s system. Incidentally, this is a good opportunity to talk about the endless debate about Rafael Benitez’s decision to use him as a Number 10.
I don’t like this typical Italian character assassination to which we subject coaches the minute they leave.
Benitez is someone who has done great things in Italy, and brought an international mentality which deserves more respect.
That said, Hamsik is a complete midfielder who can bring out all his talent in a two-man rather than a three-man midfield, and doesn’t have, in my opinion, what it takes to play in a more complicated role like the trequartista in a 4-2-3-1.
More generally, I love those coaches who can adapt their principles to the qualities of the players they have at their disposal, and it’s why I believe that the best coach in Italy today is Giampiero Ventura.
Ventura is the coach who, more than anyone else, has done the best job in bringing out Alessio Cerci’s talent. Cerci is the kind of player who can be really useful to Milan’s cause. He’s got great qualities, few are as good as him in taking player on one-on-one, but he needs confidence. He’s a bit fragile from that perspective, and needs to be helped, especially in difficult moments. He still needs to make the jump to be able to stay with, and star for, a big team.
I saw someone else shine against Milan, someone I spotted a few years ago, when I was still coach of the Italian national team. I refer to Daniele Baselli, whom I was able to bring to the only camp I was able to organise in Rome.
Even on that occasion, I noticed that he was born for bigger things. He has everything, elegance, vision, dynamism… and he’s from Brescia [like Andrea Pirlo], so I think he has all that he needs to play for a big club.
I’d like to finish up by talking about a great player and a very serious professional, Daniele De Rossi. A good kid and an exemplary athlete, he’s now appeared in 500 games for Roma.
Garcia has occasionally used him as a central defender, something he did for me, too, as an Azzurro [as in Spain 1-1 Italy, during the 2012 European Championship Group Stages], and I believe that it can help himj keep delivering at a high level for many years to come.
Something obviously changes in terms of movement, timing and so on but he’s got everything to star at the position.
I would like to finish by repeating what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks: Roma have the best squad in SerieA, but Rudia Garcia is trying out too many formations. Maybe the time has come for him to stick with one formation and a particular group of player to give them more certainty, more regularity.
Cesare Prandelli
translated by Edo Dalmonte
