The interim coach on the eve of the test against Luxembourg: “There is the future in this group, we will go onto the pitch free to express ourselves. My goal is to greet them on 8 June as better people”
The first 90′ of a journey already written: Silvio Baldini, interim coach, begins his adventure at the helm of the senior national team here, from the Luxembourg stadium, before returning to “his” Under 21 team next Monday after the trip to Crete. “I told the boys to have fun without thinking about the result: they have the opportunity to represent the country by playing football. What do I feel like saying to the Italians? That in this group there is our future, there are the best, young people who have trained with their heads and their hearts…”, so Baldini.
FOG and formation
—
For two games the coach touched on buttons that usually aren’t touched because that’s how he is and that’s how he shows himself: no ball in the stands, no melina. “During these days of work in Coverciano – he continues – we talked a lot: I also told him that I like to think that they arrived here not accompanied by their agent or girlfriend, but by their parents. Dad and mum who entrusted them to me to find them on 8 June improved as people…”. Baldini did not study Luxembourg. “We didn’t do it because I didn’t want to put pressure on the team: you go onto the pitch free to express yourself and find countermeasures against the opponent if necessary,” he says. He won’t be able to go to the gym due to a problem with his adductors: nothing serious from the exams, but stopping is better. In attack, the point of reference will be Pio Esposito, Cherubini and Koleosho will act on his sides. In the middle Lipani in control with Pisilli and Ndour at midfield. “To whom do I dedicate this achievement? To Nebbia, my children’s dog, but if I talk about it I am moved (and he is moved, ed.)…not even when I lost my father had I felt such sorrow, at the time I considered it a logic of life. But no Nebbia…I didn’t want to talk to you about it because, in the world of football, the risk is that in this way you are laughed at, but if you are laughed at I become tough, very tough, I know how to defend myself as I always have. trained for six years, I have never said what I don’t think… and, now, I’m talking to you about Nebbia…”.
emotions
—
Baldini has nothing to lose from these two matches against Italy because “I come from nothing and I can go back…”. And Baldini has only one way of being. “My family knows this and I taught them to be themselves, always and everywhere…”. Before starting, the interim coach has already scored goals in his players’ heads. “Someone told me that he was excited… I was more than him”.