Emiliano Mondonico believes Novara’s victory over Inter showed “the wonderful simplicity of football. Clever tactics are not the same as catenaccio.”
Emiliano Mondonico believes Novara’s victory over Inter showed “the wonderful simplicity of football. Clever tactics are not the same as catenaccio.”
The Coach earned his first win on the Novara bench when Andrea Caracciolo’s curler secured a shock 1-0 at San Siro.
“Football is not so complicated for me. We were facing a stronger side, had to defend, were lucky and therefore won. It happens sometimes!” smiled Mondonico.
“The fans ask us to believe in safety and that is what we do. These lads played a very old-fashioned performance, with everyone tight and going on the counter-attack. We scored one, wasted another two or three chances and in the end we won.
“We’re satisfied, tomorrow we’ll begin thinking about the Atalanta” data-scaytid=”46″>Atalanta game. That will be tougher than this one, mainly because this one’s already finished.
“Inter tried in every way to win the match and ended up with four strikers out there. It was just one of those days where we scored and they didn’t. I like other types of football, but ultimately I prefer ones like this – where the smaller side beats the big boys. This sort of thing only really happens in football.”
Novara hadn’t kept a single clean sheet until last week, but have now managed two in a row against Cagliari” data-scaytid=”49″>Cagliari and Inter.
“I prefer to watch Barcelona, obviously, but today Novara’s performance was incredible on a tactical level. Many confuse tactical solidity with catenaccio, but they are certainly not the same thing.
“Safety begins from defence and keeping clean sheets rather than scoring five or six. Us old boys know the important thing is to start out by not conceding, then we’ll see what happens. Football really is a simple sport.”
Andrea Poli had penalty appeals in the first half for a Garcia sliding tackle.
“I don’t think it was a penalty, because the turf was very slippery and he clearly went to block the ball. You can watch the replays as many times as you like, it won’t change the result!”
Mondonico beat cancer over the past year and returned to work last month replacing Attilio Tesser.
“Other teams contacted me and their first question was ‘how are you feeling?’ Novara were the only ones who simply said ‘we’d like you to work for us.’ I want to repay them for that faith in me. The fact I am standing here is already a great victory and something to be happy about.”