Antonio Calabro has to deal with a new, this time pleasant, problem called “abundance”. With the recovery of Mauro Coppolaro, who however continued to carry out personalized training yesterday while the team was engaged in a series of themed matches, his Carrarese could have all its players available for the first time on Sunday. It’s a new situation for the coach from Lecce who, since he arrived on the Italian bench, has always had to deal with a squad limited by injuries and suspensions. Now that the infirmary has been emptied it will not be easy to manage a group that is not only qualitatively but also quantitatively important but the advantages are also evident.
First of all, as Calabro had already underlined, the full squad allows us to raise the intensity of training with beneficial effects that reverberate on the Sunday match. Secondly, it provides full variety not only in the selection of the eleven players to send onto the field but also in the five changes to be made during the match. Of course the choices become more difficult but so far the coach from Melendugno has demonstrated that he knows how to “fish” well without looking in the face or granting discounts to anyone. There was another proof on Sunday in the derby against Lucchese where captain Simone Della Latta was surprisingly left out of the starting eleven.
It seemed safe to use the midfielder from Viareggio, upon his return from the suspension, but the choice was then oriented towards giving confidence to Emanuele Zuelli who had scored the opening goal against Rimini and was decisive. It is not the first time that Calabro surprises with decisions that are, however, carefully weighed both taking into account the type of match and the opponent that he will face and the results of the weekly work.
Of course, in the team there are some players who are less expendable than others due to their characteristics but no one is untouchable. This was well understood in these first 16 matches under the management of the Salento coach who in turn had to give up a bit on everyone from Schiavi to Cicconi, from Della Latta to Panico, making a virtue of necessity and always finding the appropriate countermeasures even at the cost to adapt players to roles that are not usual for them. All this while also taking advantage of the great advantage of having a group of kids completely devoted to the blue cause and capable of putting their “I” at the service of “us”.
Gianluca Bondielli
