The Rossoneri technician starts again after relegation: “To my boys I say to look at the field 1 every day, that is the goal. Tassotti? I call it ‘the essay'”
In the world of the ball, the word project is entitled by the podium of the most abused terms. Often useful to say everything without saying anything, other times to hide behind rhetoric. In the case of the future Milan, however, the project is the key concept. To be gone, to understand. The one around which everything revolves, especially after the strawberry fall and sensational from C to D. because if there was no clear planning, Massimo Oddo now would be elsewhere. And instead he put an autograph, together with Tassotti (surname translatable with “guarantee”), on a two -year contract. Massimo has also trained in A and B, yet it starts from amateurs without feeling minimally diminished. “When Milan calls, you can’t say no.” The Italian Cup has already started, the championship will start on 7 September.
With what state of mind does this adventure begin?
“Great enthusiasm, which is part of my character. The fundamental thing for me was to understand well the planning, the focus, to understand where you are. It is something that happens in any club, of course, but in this case it is a more essential condition than elsewhere. I had experiences in all categories, mine was a very particular path also because in my career I worked very little from the beginning. In most cases I have not taken and are not a nice experience because there are no margin. Error and missing that planning that is fundamental for me “.
Also with Milan Future has arrived in the course of work.
“Yes, but we speak precisely of Milan. I would never have felt like refusing, they needed help at that moment, so I did not hesitate. Unfortunately the time was very little and the situation very difficult, even if we worked well. With a pinch of more time we could have done the miracle. This year I was offered a project, there was appreciation for the work done. Moment I do not train a category ‘, but a well -defined project.
It describes this project to us.
“Improve young people, improve the team through their growth. Make them become big, with the aim of giving them the opportunity to approach the first team as much as possible. It is a project totally different from the usual dynamics, where everything is marked on the results. The results are important also from us, it is obvious, but to count more for us it is the way you get there. For the others the priority is to field the best formation that you can not win, The choice of the best individuals at that moment, but of the individuals who have more prospects to get to a certain type of football.
There is talk of boys: very young average age, certainly younger than last season.
“Much younger, yes. We call ourselves Milan Future, but I would like to emphasize that Milan future is not only the under 23, but a project that starts from the basic activity and goes to the end of the path with the second team, which is the last step to improve these guys. The interchange between future, first team and spring serves precisely this, starting from the assumption that spring will have a pink of players in age”.
Moncada a few months ago said that for your project, making the C or D changed little. What differences do you see between the two categories?
“Moncada was misunderstood, it meant that it is important to confront a type of football other than the youth one. However, in C you also need a little bigger players, who help the youngest, in D there is not all this necessity. Ours will be an extremely young team, where 17 -year -old boys will confront each other with the football of the greats. We are talking about boys technically and tactically more evolved than the category, but in this category they will find bread for their teeth. situations and characteristics that would never find in the youth sector.
When in May you are relegated, did you already have the idea of being able to continue with Milan future, or was it a next scenario?
“The goodness of the project was so clear that before the playout I had already received a verbal proposal to continue. Because a certain type of work had been made, a certain type of path and a certain type of appreciation. For example, we had three players almost on a stable basis in the first team such as Bartesaghi, Jimenez and Camarda, there were the debuts of liberals and homoregbe. Others started last month in the tour with Milan, They train with Allegri.
The synergy with the first team then remains one of the guidelines.
“Certainly. Another aspect for me is beautiful is that I am actually as if I train AC Milan, from training camps to offices to technological supports. It is a rewarding reality. In D we have a structure from first -rate professionals behind us. We train as far as possible at the same times of the first team, there is a lot of collaboration, exchange of ideas. And in the perspective of this synergy we must also pay close attention to the mental aspect of the boys. A boy is sent to the first team, he also takes into account this aspect: there are those who are more emotional and whoever less, there are those who then return to U23 without problems and those who go with the big ones and exalt themselves a little too much.
What was the greatest criticality he found when he arrived last season?
“I do not want to judge the work of those who preceded me. As far as I’m concerned, the difficulty of departing from the initial project: on my arrival the priority was no longer launching young people, but saving the category. I can say that there was a great job, in projection we were sixth in the standings, we managed to give a game identity”.
Tassotti, who is his collaborator, how do we call him? At least, an added value.
“I have known him for a lifetime, he was my deputy coach when I played. Infinite experience, charismatic man and added value especially for children, even humanly. I call him the essay”.
He will also be used to keep the group’s stimuli in this championship high: Milan future next summer will register again for Serie C regardless of the placement in D.
“The boys must understand that it is necessary to get to team victory not an end in itself, but due to individual growth within the group. In some ways, for us the training is almost more important that the Sunday game in itself. Training there is their goal.
Will Milan Future’s tactical philosophy reflect that of the first team?
“In principle, we try to give a certain continuity in the concepts, also by virtue of the exercises in training, so that the players do not find themselves spoested. But then other needs may take over: if I have two strong attackers, I make them play both. The absolute priority remains the growth”.
We close with her: in two years, when the contract expire, what will Massimo do Oddo?
“My goal is to train in A, the national team, Brazil. Seriously. Seriously, for me it will be basic to understand how my role will develop now and if I can achieve the corporate goal”.
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