Angry Gasperini fires back at formation debate
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China Daily, September 16, 2011
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Inter Milan's Mauro Zarate reacts against Trabzonspor in their Group B Champions League match at San Siro stadium in Milan on Wednesday. Stefano Rellandini / Reuters |
Angry Inter Milan coach Gian Piero Gasperini hit out at his critics for creating an issue out of his formation following the 2010 European champion's shock 1-0 home defeat to Trabzonspor.
Having started as top seed Inter now sits bottom of Champions League Group B after the first round of matches with rank-outsiders Trabzonspor top.
Gasperini played a three-man defense in the 4-3 defeat at Palermo on Sunday, but following a media storm decided to plump for a conventional back four at the San Siro.
The team may have been more secure at the back but its attack certainly suffered.
"All the discussions over the last few days had little value, all it did was create a lot of confusion," he said.
"As for the rest, it was different to the Palermo match, we had many chances but we didn't take them.
"They scored from the only chance they had which determined this negative result.
"On top of that it started from offside, for sure we haven't been lucky in this time but this was a much better performance than the other night.
"When a team like Inter loses it's normal to be criticized, but the quality of discussion in these days wasn't normal.
"It seems as if it's been conducted by people who've never spoken about football before.
"It's wrong to turn it into a debate about three or four at the back."
And Gasperini was adamant that he hadn't been put under pressure to change his formation, despite Inter president Massimo Moratti saying the day before he expected his coach to change the system.
"No-one pushed me to pick one formation or another, that's a total invention, all I did was try to correct the mistakes (from Sunday)," said Gasperini.
"Two defeats hurt, even if tonight's was for different reasons.
"Sunday's wasn't a complete blow-out, in the second half we made a lot of mistakes.
"Our interpretation of the game wasn't right as we conceded too many counters, maybe also due to our desire to win.
"We played differently today, we have many options and we can still do very well in the league."
Trabzonspor coach Senol Gunes, the man who took Turkey to the World Cup semi-finals in 2002, said people shouldn't be too surprised if his team does well.
"Maybe our Italian colleagues don't know this but Trabzon is a football city, we live for football," said Gunes, who is also from Trabzon and used to play for the club.
"This is not just a win for Trabzonspor but we were also representing Turkey, it's not just for the city but for the whole of Turkey which will be very happy."
Gunes also played down the effect of Gasperini's formation change.
"We have many new players but also Inter have a new coach, they're changing systems and formations.
"We've seen Inter haven't started the season well but the most important motive was the heat and humidity, that took its toll on the players and coaches."
Despite the win, Gunes said it was too early to get excited about the side's hopes of qualifying.
Trabzonspor is only in the Champions League because the Turkish Federation withdrew champion Fenerbahce due to a match-fixing scandal and replaced it with the team which had already been knocked out by Benfica in the third qualifying round.
"First of all it's great because we weren't very well known before but this will help us a lot," he said.
"But it's too early to talk positively, it's a positive result but there are still many games to go.
"Obviously we expected something different from Inter but at the same time this is football.
"It's not enough just to have great players like (Esteban) Cambiasso, (Giampaolo) Pazzini and (Wesley) Sneijder, anything can happen on the pitch."
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