Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/80 9TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT Rightly, the last word is always yours. It may have happened that the teamdoctor or the strength and conditioning coach convinces you to change a player in the lineup because at that moment, it was too risky? Since you became the coach of Lazio, youwon the derby versus the rival teamof the city, AS Roma. Howdoes this make you feel? You started to use the lineup with a 3-5-2 shape, but it seems that during the same game, you change it? The team doctor, yes, because clearly, with this kind of congested calendar, we have a lot of games. Then an assistant coach or the strength and conditioning coach can have their opinion about the lineup, but as I have mentioned before, the last decision is mine. I usually listen to the doctor because compared to the past when there were only three games in three weeks, now there are seven or eight, and losing a player for time is an issue. I’ve been here in Rome for 22 years as a footballer first and then as a coach. It’s the city of my wife and my children, so it’s a city that I have in my heart. I have always lived in the city in the best way possible, and I had a good relationship with the Roma fans too. Now that I am in Milan, I am very happy with the new club, we have great supporters, and we won different trophies, and we want to win more. When I started in the academy and in my first year and a half in Lazio, I was playing with the 4-3-3. But more importantly than the shape and the number, what really matters are the players, the team, and how the field is covered during the game. I ended up playing 3-5-2 in Lazio because I had some players like Radu and Lulic that were fundamental for the team. One of them was playing as the left central back, and the other one as a winger. That was the only way to let them both play together. Then I realized how the space is the most important thing, and some players, even if they never played in a specific position, did very well. Keita, for example, playing as a striker close to Immobile, scored 16/18 goals, and he was convinced that he could only play as a winger. So, more than the shape, what really matters is how the players interpret the role. When do you communicate the starting lineup to the players? Do you usually speak morewith the playerswhowill play or the oneswhowill not start? In modern football, the players know the lineup during the morning meeting of the match. Since most of the team plays in the evening, the idea is to optimize the fewminutes of training that we can have. By giving them the lineup in the morning, the players will knowwho is going to play during the training session focused on set pieces.