On the sidelines of the fifth edition of ‘The coach experience”an event organized by the AIAC which took place yesterday morning, the Giallorossi coach Daniele de Rossi he spoke in depth about everything regarding his recent experience at the helm of Roma, including tactical ideas and much more. These are his words: “If you invited me thinking that I want to give a lesson, I will immediately get back on the train and go home. If anything, I am here to learn, to compare myself with many coaches. I often did it when I was on the other side of the desk, every experience having had it with some already established coaches enriched me, perhaps even with those I didn’t like, because I understood what I should never have done with my players.”
How it was born with Roma.
“It was a very strong emotion, born in 24 hours. Yes, some indiscretions had already come out, but I read them in the newspapers and every now and then you read invented things, but instead it was all very fast and all very secret. The first day I planned to do thirty training sessions a day, even though I am someone who manages emotions well. But I will always remember my first match against Verona, I had many doubts, I still have many, but then we improved slowly. Now I look back and it’s all normal, but it all went by so quickly, I wanted to prove that I could stay there to remove even the specter of the failure of the first experience Maybe everything would have changed before.”
Fluid systems or confusion?
“A phrase that Luis Enrique always repeated is “If I had had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter”. I find it beautiful. Sometimes I have to hold back so as not to give all the information. As a coach, I always think about what I didn’t like it as a player. I had coaches who had technical meetings on Saturday morning, Saturday evening, Sunday morning, then before getting on the bus, then before the warm-up and then also at the end: “In my opinion this conveyed their opinion”. insecurity, not what they wanted. Then tactically the important thing is not to ask for opposite things, it would affect recognizability. What we have done has also often been misunderstood: maybe say that we play three-way if the third is Angelino, who then finds you on the back foot. flag, it’s limiting. For me, real organization must concern the defensive phase, you have to know how to defend, how to go against the opponents. For example, we started with great offensive pressure and after a couple of games I changed and told them: “Guys, we can also defend lower, let’s get back to the ball quickly and see, without trying too much high pressure or extreme wins.” And I saw that they felt more comfortable when they were shorter. Then little by little we tried to get out of this slavery. Change is nice, but 4-5 players have to be good at reading, above all recognizing danger, which we and I lacked, after a while they understood us and when you lose the ball you are vulnerable. All things that we will/will learn over time. Of course, if one day I ask them for the 4-4-2 low and the next day 3-3-4 up there I’ll confuse them. I prefer to give certainties about positions, functions, ways of expressing the game.”
Power at the service of others
“I was a good teammate, I tell myself this, and I never abused the position of an important footballer, especially in a city like ours that lives for football. I made the power I had available to my teammates. Now I always try to make the kids understand that it’s always a good time to say well done to your teammate even if he makes a mistake or at least not to let the mistake matter, because that’s what I did as a footballer and I want to pass it on.”
Construction from the bottom
“There can’t be just one way to play, it would be absurd. I believe in it deeply because I think it leads to a response from the opponent. If the opponent stays low, goodbye to construction, for example. If instead they come to get you you have to be good at recognize and weigh the risks, I always tell the kids. I had a coach who changed my way of seeing football a little and I had him when I was almost thirty and he brought us something again even if I had already been with Spalletti for example. We saw Barcelona on television and he brought it to us. For me it was amazing, I was happy with him and also for these reasons in the national team, I was an already trained player. Yet when he left I was a better player. For me, the greatest of all in grassroots construction, even if perhaps many don’t like him, is Roberto De Zerbi: if you go to get him he’ll throw a stone at you with the goalkeeper 70 meters away and his teams know exactly how and when to do it.”
First team or youth team
“I didn’t want to start from the youth sector. I admire my father very much for what he did. A coach advised me to start from there, experiment with everything I wanted, I could have made mistakes and no one would have noticed, but I would have did it serve my interests or those of the boys? I would have done what my father fought for thirty years. I realized that my ambition was more important than that of the boy’s development. If you realize this you cannot coach guys. For me they should be two distinct categories. Then, for goodness sake, if you win you’re happy, you take a nice photo with the cup at home and you’re happy, but that shouldn’t be your goal, but to take a boy and give him back. better than when you got it.”
The credibility of a coach
“Mourinho’s Aldo Serena once said that in the era of drones, whoever manages to get into the heads of the players is thirty years ahead of everyone. Ezio Capuano on the other hand said that the coach must first and foremost have the ability to attract a high level of immense interest in his players. I completely agree. I could say to a player: you do this because you are paid to do it and silent. But every player has a different key, and you have to know how to open it. And then he gives it to you also the work on the field. This year there was a player who didn’t jump much, by observing him we noticed that he jumped with his arms stretched out along his body. We worked on it a bit and the results showed quickly.”
The reaggression of the ball
“At Roma we have data that makes us understand how after losing the ball we suffer a shot on goal very quickly. The most negative thing about having this good fluidity on the pitch is the disorder it creates in transitions. When you score maybe they make you a lots of compliments, I’m thinking of Mancini’s goal against Milan. And then, if you don’t have three or four “animals” made for that, it becomes dangerous recover the ball, perhaps even simply going under the ball instead of immediately attacking again. This is something we want to work on in the future.”
Differences between Ferrara and Rome
“I work in the same way. I always went to the camp at half past seven. There it took me seven minutes on the bicycle, now 40 minutes, so I sleep less because I wake up at six. But I prepare for training in the same way, my relationships with the players, the managers, the staff, it’s all the same. Maybe on the bench at Spal I put my hands in my pockets and they told me I looked like an idiot in Roma, and in the early days we all won the matches and they said to me “Look at his confidence, he even keeps his hands in his pockets”. The perception we leave in others depends on the results. In Rome, after four games it seemed like we had to catch up with Inter. Then if you win you are better and you can appear more humble. But it’s also a bit of attitude. Well, the difference is that in Ferrara I had problems of a human nature, nothing very serious, for goodness sake, but in short I wasn’t at ease, and a couple of times I wasn’t. remained calm because I also have an angular character. In Rome, however, luckily I get along very well with everyone.”
The importance of authenticity
“In the thesis supported with Ulivieri (the AIAC president who was always at his side during the meeting, ed.) I wrote that I don’t like to raise my voice. But everything starts from what I think I am. I try to be authentic, to be myself. For example: the speeches that coaches make at the beginning of a relationship are always the same, right? etc. “But sometimes I went crazy because in reality they didn’t behave like that. Many were strong with the spring players, and weak with the adults. And the players realize it after a minute , like when I was a footballer. I never attacked anyone, very few times I argued with someone. I’ll give you the example of Conte: when he got angry, it was real, you could see inside that it was him, he spat at you pain on you and you were filled with it after a bad match or a bad first half. If I copied him I would be ridiculous. I couldn’t do it, even though I appreciated it in him. I prefer to speak without shouting and I have perhaps gone to the strong player and told him “You made a mess, you should be ashamed, you need to run more”. He doesn’t need to shout, the other twenty understand him. And in the same tone you say it to the spring. Then I happened to lose my temper and maybe I also did it to present myself a little better to my former teammates… I’ll tell you about the last episode, relating to the derby. I have respect for Lazio. But in preparation for the match I wanted to explain to him how important it was for us to beat Lazio, moreover we hadn’t won in so many derbies… But I saw that the message wasn’t getting through. So I changed my strategy: I asked the Portuguese “which team did you hate when you were a kid? Sporting Lisbon”. To the Turk: “And you?” “Fenerbahce”. I asked the German, the Frenchman and the others the same question and charged them: “Now think that you have to play against the team you hated as kids and break them…””.
(the Romanist)
