Fabio Cannavaro celebrate the salvation ofUdinese in Serie A, after the 1-0 success at Frosinone. Interviewed by Skyrecounts the hug to Di Francesco at the final whistle: “From the first day I arrived I knew it was very difficult, but as Capello said, not impossible. We worked a lot, it was a team in emergency from day one, it wasn’t easy in many respects. They’ve given everything since we arrived, they’ve been good and haven’t given up anything, this is football and a team that puts you in difficulty when you play against them is relegated.”
What was the decisive moment?“I had already understood from Bologna that this was a team with values. Of course, the difficulty in playing at home was evident, but already from Bologna you could see that, when you prepared for the matches, the boys were super motivated and had an inner strength uncommon. The Bologna match gave me the awareness of being able to work on certain concepts, of having entered the players’ heads.”
What does the contract provide?
“Five games”.
And now?
“When I accepted, I risked it, I knew it was complicated to get in, because I had a lot of experience abroad, which for many isn’t worth it but it helped me grow as a coach. There was a negative experience in Serie B, I played it: I accepted this task with difficulty, but it was simple because I found a company that made everything available to me.”
He took a team that didn’t deserve that ranking.
“The thing we had to work on the most was our mentality, they are players who shouldn’t be in that position in the rankings. But even today I had five starters out, three on the bench who at most guaranteed me half an hour. It was a “The emergency continues, today Davis played injured, I should have changed him after two seconds.”
Is he a player you have trusted?“Brenner, Davis… But because they were injured, the situation wasn’t easy even before. For a coach when there are no attackers it’s tough for anyone. But I liked them, the management of the ball had improved: the goals all came from situations we worked. I’m satisfied with how we worked.”
He doesn’t look too happy.
“I’m happy, but we’ve been closed in the stadium for forty days and maybe I still haven’t realized.”
What did this stop in Udine give you?
“It’s a growth as a coach, I’ve always been used to having teams devoted to attack to win championships, the experience of Benevento was very useful for me to understand a different type of football. Before I was less demanding, now I’m more so: a it’s right to be at certain levels. Sometimes I had to close my eyes, because it was the moment to do them. It was not an easy task, fortunately it went well.”
Now do I renew or say goodbye?“I had to think about this, from tomorrow we’ll think about something else. I had the sole objective of saving Udinese, then we’ll think about it. These five matches were very intense, I saw some boys who gave you everything, who wanted to learn, not retreat. This is fundamental.”
Very few Italians, perhaps that experience abroad was useful.“It’s normal that when you experience it as a foreigner, you experience it differently. And communication isn’t easy: they were afraid of playing from the back, of occupying spaces, of going forward. It wasn’t easy to unlock them from that point of view , I tried to make him understand that it’s right to try to do certain things when you have quality players, otherwise you won’t win matches. They were good.”