Maurizio Sarri has no intention of being a Sir Alex Ferguson managerial figure at Napoli, but “I do hope to remain for a long time. It’s not my job to ask for €100m players.”
The Coach sat down with Lorenzo Insigne and Allan for a Q&A along with fans during their pre-season training camp today.
“A tactician makes choices every day, so I don’t have any big regrets for last season. It’s true we struggled to find that balance after Arek Milik’s injury. I certainly got things wrong, but no big regrets.”
Maurizio Sarri has no intention of being a Sir Alex Ferguson managerial figure at Napoli, but “I do hope to remain for a long time. It’s not my job to ask for €100m players.”
The Coach sat down with Lorenzo Insigne and Allan for a Q&A along with fans during their pre-season training camp today.
“A tactician makes choices every day, so I don’t have any big regrets for last season. It’s true we struggled to find that balance after Arek Milik’s injury. I certainly got things wrong, but no big regrets.”
What is Sarri’s rapport with fiery President Aurelio De Laurentiis like, especially after public outbursts?
“The President expresses his ideas in a certain way and you just need to get to know people. At times you can blow a gasket, but the day after that person returns to being perfectly calm. You just need to know how to contain it during those difficult moments, but it’s not a compromise for me. Coaches have far worse to deal with at other clubs.”
Sarri gets along with ADL partly because he is old-fashioned when it comes to dictating transfer strategy.
“I don’t want to get involved. Sometimes players arrive who I don’t even know, and that’s fine, because I trust (director of sport Cristiano) Giuntoli.
“My job is to improve the players at my disposal. It’s not my job to ask for players worth €100m each, because that would be too easy. It’s not my job.”
Can Sarri go on to become Napoli’s Sir Alex Ferguson?
“If you mean the length of time, then I don’t know. If you mean being a manager as well as a Coach, then I am not interested. I only care about what happens on the pitch. We have a great director of sport and he can sign anyone, I trust his judgment.
“Italian football is different to in England, as you struggle to stay at one club for a long time. Whatever the length of my stay here, nobody can ever take away from me the fact I was the Napoli Coach. I do hope to remain for a long time, though.”
Now that Milik has recovered and Dries Mertens is a consolidated centre-forward, will Napoli have to change tactics to fit everyone?
“The problems are when we lack players, not have too many. I hope to have over 50 competitive games this season, so squad rotation will be necessary.
“Changing system to score more goals would be stupid. We were already the most prolific side in Serie A last season. If anything, we should work on conceding fewer goals.
“We could change system during a game, but I don’t see replacing a midfielder with another striker to be a priority. We’ll have the same basic foundations, then can change based on the situations.”
Sarri has said he’s unimpressed with the idea of Video Assistant Referees and explained his position further.
“I want to know the names of the two or three referees in that box. I want to know who is deciding our destiny. I still haven’t worked out how this is going to go, if it’ll be used when play has halted or not.”
Image via @sscnapoli