Pippo Inzaghi reveals the biggest regret of his Milan career – “not having played more with Zlatan Ibrahimovic”.
The Swedish striker spent two seasons at San Siro, but a cruciate ligament injury left Super Pippo sidelined for a good portion of that time.
“We’re friends off the field, he’s an excellent player, very unselfish,” Inzaghi told France Football.
Pippo Inzaghi reveals the biggest regret of his Milan career – “not having played more with Zlatan Ibrahimovic”.
The Swedish striker spent two seasons at San Siro, but a cruciate ligament injury left Super Pippo sidelined for a good portion of that time.
“We’re friends off the field, he’s an excellent player, very unselfish,” Inzaghi told France Football.
“We had different and complimentary qualities, and we’d have been a perfect partnership but I seriously injured my knee in the 2010-11 season and was on the treatment table for 10 months.
“Yes, not having played more with Zlatan is the biggest regret of my career.”
In his interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Inzaghi criticised the “false-nine” system, but gave a more nuanced view to the French outlet.
“You know, I myself opted for that strategy when I was Milan Coach, deploying Jeremy Menez in that position.
“I’m just saying that if you have a quality striker, then you will necessarily play them. With a [Luis] Suarez, a [Robert] Lewandowski or a [Gonzalo] Higuain, the question never even arises.
“I want the centre-forwards to be in the best position to score, and they move over the pitch, like [Carlos] Bacca at Milan. If I have a player like that at my disposal, I’ll use them right away.”
Inzaghi once said that a goalscoring instinct couldn’t be learned, that it had to be innate. Does he still feel the same way as Venezia Coach?
“I was a player whose game was based on feelings, movements, timing and that’s extremely difficult to teach.
“However, I try to get across what I did off the field in terms of professionalism: the meticulous work, diet, resting properly.
“Then I try to get a little bit of myself across, but it’s difficult to copy what I was.
“So there's no place for a poacher in today’s game? Oh I think not! Centre-forward will always be considered infallible and will always delight their teams.”