Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/89 Something that is difficult for a lot of coaches is the relationshipwith themedia. You see football from the media point of view, what did it teach you? Last year you attended the first course to become a coach and youwere the first of your class. You reached the top level: is this your future? I want to be prepared. For now I’m following my kids. As soon as I finished football, that was my priority. Being a parent is very difficult sometimes, but beautiful on the other side. I enjoy being in the studio as well, it’s amazing, following the games from that perspective, you have technology, you can look at the data so you’re going to see how they play, different teams, different players and coaches. On the other side, I’m studying as a coach. I want to know more, I want to understand why some coaches are better, which kind of techniques they’re using and I’m not talking about tactics, because everybody’s different. How is the psychological approach of the team, how you can improve these players and for me that is the most fascinating part. I’m going to finish the end of this football season and then we’ll see. Now coaches have to deal with different things, including media that has increased more and more. One of the things that I learned during the coaching course, who do you think are you talking to, the media or with the fans? Well, you actually talk to everyone and, first of all, you’re talking to your players. Talking to the media, of course puts money on the market, it’s important for football, but you’re talking to the players first and then you talk to the fans and then you talk to the other teams. So, what you say in front of the media is very important and needs preparation. Howdid you prepare for this kind of match? Is there a danger to overthinking all these topics? Another key word is ‘Balance’. Balance in the game, and balance in the physical and psychological part of the game. Balance especiallywhen we’re talking about the World Cup is very important, because you need to think about what you’re going to do, but also you need to clear your mind sometimes. If your mind is clear, as soon as you go to the field, the better you’re going to perform. You prepare and you train so it’s a continuous balance about what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. On the physical side, in those days, the last week, you don’t prepare that much. You need to survive, because I believe that there’s a lot of injuries connected to the mental side of the players and the approach of the game, especially muscle problems. When I started we had the coach, assistant coach, personal trainer and goalkeeper trainer. Then we heard Simone Inzaghi saying “My personal team is seven people plus seven from the staff”, so we went from 4 to 14 and the same for the player, for the medical staff. Before we had two physiotherapists, one doctor and one kitman. Nowwe have maybe 20- 25 people, everything has changed including the preparation, the rules of the game changed the game. The genes of the players changed. Now we have players taller and faster, because this is the evolution of the of the players. That’s why it’s very difficult to compare what happened before to now. We went through a preparation of three weeks in the mountains working hard. Now you play big games after five days and you have more knowledge during the summer, when you are off, there’s more professionality from the players.. Knowledge is what you have to do, what you don’t have to do, what is important to do. STAR CHAT