Maurizio Sarri strongly defends Lazio and Italy striker Ciro Immobile and says Italian football is 30 years behind: ‘If you switch to a Serie A match after watching Bundesliga, you think: ‘Where the f*** am I?”
The Tuscan tactician spoke at a press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Serie A match with Sassuolo. He confirmed that he had met Claudio Lotito the previous day, but refused to comment on his future.
“I spoke to Lotito yesterday, we wanted to chat to some players,” the coach said.
“The game against Roma was inexplicable. You can lose games, but with another reaction and commitment. I am furious with the players and with myself. I had the feeling that the emotional energy was not the right one before the game. I tried to intervene, but maybe I didn’t do it in the right way. Now we need pride without thinking about other stories. Future? We’ll see. For now it’s the game against Sassuolo.”
When asked how he found Ciro Immobile after Italy’s World Cup exit, he replied: “I spoke to Immobile and I told him what I think. He is becoming the national team’s scapegoat and he knows exactly what’s behind it. I’d know what to do in his place, let’s see what he decides.
“It’s useless to say what I’d do, it’s all down to Ciro. He is fully committed to this environment. He is reactive, I am not worried about his performance with Lazio.
“I have my idea and I’ve heard silly things about Italian football. Italy had 35 shots (32) against North Macedonia and conceded a goal with just two goals on target.
“Here, we are 30-35 years behind the others, but nobody talks about structures and training facilities. When I moan about the turfs, they say that I always complain. If you watch a Bundesliga game and you switch to one of Serie A, you ask yourself: ‘Where the f*** am I?”
indeed Sarri you are absolutely right on Italian football so behind, and the structure is weak! the many reasons why Italy has no good strikers is because of the system. under the circumstances no coach no current striker could’ve done more! it is what it is, and yep it is pretty f*****up!!!
Hold on a minute. If that was the case Italy wouldn’t have won anything for 30 years. Serie A is certainly behind in financial terms now, but that was not the case in the 90s
Of course Immobile is our scapegoat he’s been our main striker for a while and haven’t qualified
for 2 WC he bangs them in for Lazio
but the stats speak for themselves around 13 goals in 44 games for Nationale is poor.
Captain Immobile should’ve made a comment after the loss against
N Macedonia but didn’t bother he knows in himself that his performances for the National team have been below expectations for a while,
What about Euro 2020????????
Everyone in the world will admit that Italy played the best football.
Sarri is an idiot. Ciro failed in germany and spain and has only ever flouroshed with the setup at lazio but its everyone elses fault because were 30 years behind. No one ever comes knocking for ciro anymore, why is that?
Too much smoke in his eyes
@Peter our success has been in spite of our infrastructure and not because of it. If we could sort ourselves out off the pitch we could do a lot better.
If you look past our 4 finals and 2 trophies in the 21st century, we have been awful at the World Cup, 2002 2nd round, 2010 and 2014 first round exits, 2018 and 2022 no shows.
If nothing changes behind the scenes we’ll keep having these conversations.
I agree with Sarri on infrastructure and certainly not regarding Immobile.
Speaks a guy who barely won the league by 1 point when that team, boosted by a Martian in CR7, had walked 8 titles. Sarri is a joke and he can give no lectures on football. If Italy was so far out, why did they win 8 months ago?? Ciro needs to go because he only turns up for Lazio.
I am not a fan of Sarri but he’s absolutely right even though italians refuses to see that.. One success doesn’t automatically erase all the corruption and lack of infrastructure in Italian Football! I have been a fan of Italian football for a very long time ( AC Milan) and apart from Milan because it’s my team, I struggle to watch other games because commentary is bad, stadiums are bad, coverage is nothing to write home about compared to English, Spanish and German league… Shy away from the truth as much as you want, change coaches and players, maybe Italy will win the next tournament which makes them believe all is good again and fail again in another world Cup until some people are willing to learn!
Roma wanted to build a stadium for many years it was blocked by the council for the usual same reasons, Napoli wanted to take over the Sao Paolo, it was not possible, Commisso tried but in vain, Milan and Inter has been on it for years now and still we are still debating. In all this, not FA official came out to back the clubs against the councils. But when Fiorentina council decided to renovate the Franchi , the FA president come out to cheer them, saying its a gift for the people of Florence, Tell me in all this, how would the club grow ? Juventus rule the league for 8-9 years because of their superior income , which is largely due to their new stadium, if 7,8,9 teams build their own stadium what would you think will happen to the league? And we are complaining about Italian football being behind
Truth is Italy has blown hot and cold for many years. Yes, improve the infrastructure and they will blow hot more often, that’s a no brainer, anyone would. But I would suggest Italy look at other strikers besides the boy from Lazio at this point.
Need more Italian players playing.
Can’t continue at 32%, sorry.
Italian football problem in one word “corruption “
Infrastructure does play a part for sure but where is the infrastructure in Macedonia??? Its simple not enough Italian players play in serie A, especially in the top teams
Italy have been in decline ever since they won the World Cup in 2006. It was a (very pleasant) surprise when they won the Euros last year. The frustrating thing is that it could have been avoided. I don’t think it is anyone’s fault though, at least not player wise..
I have noticed that Italy seem to do well when there are no expectations on them. The moment they win a trophy they seem to collapse. Victory doesn’t seem to serve them well. I sometimes think that the worst thing to happen to Italy is for them to win a European Nations Cup. Missing one WC is a shock. Missing two and it starts to become a habit. No Italian fan wants this as their “new normal”.