The Milan and Lazio coaches challenged each other for the first time on the bench over 20 years ago and represent two opposing football philosophies. Over the years they have often publicly teased each other: “Temperamentally we are opposites”
Don’t pay too much attention to the photo above. It’s mostly a matter of pleasantries. Pro forma in favor of the camera, as will also happen on Saturday evening at the Meazza. Photo opportunityit is said in these cases. In reality Massimiliano Allegri and Maurizio Sarri would hardly consciously choose to go to dinner together. There is nothing exaggerated between them, for goodness sake, they are not on each other’s souls in the strict sense of the term. And compliments are often given too. But let’s say that in the past they have not spared themselves some more or less painful stings.
face to face
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The knowledge and attendance on the fields, however, is decidedly dated. For the first meetings on the respective benches we must go back to the early 2000s in Tuscany, when Allegri coached Aglianese and Sarri coached Sangiovannese. Lega Pro championship. Max at the beginning of his career, Maurizio already with several years of experience, started in the second category. Twenty years later, the abacus scores 19 face to face with the scales tipping decisively towards Allegri: 11 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats for the Rossoneri coach. Challenges that involved eight teams: in addition to Aglianese and Sangiovannese we also find Sassuolo, Verona, Juve, Empoli, Napoli and Lazio. Along their journey they have carried forward a different philosophy and game proposal, which were then taken to the extreme and freeze-dried into playfulness (Sarri) and resultism (Allegri). Max the coach who takes care to keep the shutters down and has no problems slipping one narrow victory after another; Maurizio is the coach convinced that victories come – or in any case must come – through play.
question and answer
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The different visions of football have certainly contributed to lighting the fuse between the two, but it’s not just that. Rewinding the tape, we can already find sparks in 2017. For example, on the occasion of a Napoli-Juve match in December, when Sarri had brought up Inter about rest days between one match and another, but it was Allegri himself who replied: “I don’t follow him anymore, every time he has one. In my opinion he does it to create confusion for me and then I stop”. Then he explained the concept: “Maurizio… I’m no longer behind him: once he has the pitch, once a week less…”. Let’s say it revolved around a very Tuscan irony. Another round in February 2018. Sarri said: “There are teams that mark a period. I am convinced that in twenty years we will be talking about Napoli, also hoping to win something.” Allegri, without responding specifically to Maurizio, a few days later reflected as follows: “I always say and continue to say that in the end it matters if you manage to write something you won in the bulletin board, because otherwise we’ll already forget what happened two days before, let alone if we’ll remember 20 years ago, in that match, what would have happened if the ball had hit the post and gone in… In life you have to be very practical.” Two months later, approaching Juve-Napoli, the climate had heated up again after Sarri had strategically shifted the pressure on the Bianconeri. And so, Max: “Let me understand. Doesn’t anyone ever have responsibility here? That one has no pressure, that other one has no pressure, then it’s right that Juventus win. Because in the Italian Cup Napoli have no pressure, in the Champions League they have no pressure, in the Europa League they have no pressure, they have no pressure anywhere.” And, even without a direct back and forth, their personal vision of football has always placed the two on different planets. Allegri: “It’s not that I have to be an esthete to make people happy, I have to make them happy by winning. If at a certain point you have to play badly to bring home the result, you do it.” Sarri, on the other side of the moon: “For me the result is achieved through play, I can’t think differently. Our goal has always been beauty.”
chatter
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Tracks that will never meet. The acrimony reached its peak around the word Juve, when Allegri was sacked in 2019 and the Lady decided to rely on Sarri who, during the presentation, spoke of a more proactive game and of entertaining people. Sarri never mentioned Allegri, just as Allegri never mentioned Sarri when, however, by return post he said this: “In the end, what counts is winning, the rest is chatter. Footballers are like horses, you have to look at how they move their legs. Tactics and schemes are all bullshit.” Maurizio’s rejoinder: “Do I also believe in these concepts? I just hope the presidents don’t notice, otherwise our salaries will decrease a lot… I think there is a middle ground, they are opinions and ways of understanding the same job in a different way.” We can close the list by still fishing for this phrase from Allegri from November 2022 before a Juve-Lazio match: “Temperamentally we are opposites”. An obvious one, but… it’s always better to reiterate it. For the record: before this Milan-Lazio, in the pre-eve conference, Max said of Maurizio: “He’s doing an excellent job, Lazio are a well-trained team”. Calumet of peace?
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