To whom has reduced the Sampdoria in this condition, I would like to wish you a nice Sunday evening in the queue between Albisola and Genoa. But to everyone, eh, no one excluded. Including those who have returned now, and also claim to be greeted by fanfares and trumpets. The technical and qualitative paucity of the team is disarming, the thickness of the squad equally. A corollary to this scenario are disastrous accounts, the most total disaffection of the fans and, at the present moment, not even a glimmer of light for the future. A enlightened management, nothing to say.
To tell the truth, an optimist like myself finds a couple of sparks. Which? Lanna president, we have already talked about it, and Marco Giampaolo the coach. Two people who have consciously decided to immerse themselves in the manure up to the eyes, for the love of Sampdoria. They speak well, touch the right keys, have content and depth. But that’s not enough. To save yourself you need the players, the feet, the men and the head. It takes people who run faster than their opponents, longer and better. Sampdoria doesn’t have them today. Cagliari, Turin and Spezia are there to prove it.
I have read hallucinatory comments about Giampaolo, who has already ended up in the dock. Do you understand? After forty-eight hours in Genoa, half training and a few matches. It is his fault because ‘he put Candreva as an attacking midfielder’. Moreover it is not true, he simply placed his best player free to vary where he preferred, hoping for a play or an invention. It’s his fault because he ‘put Thorsby out of the way’. Where was he supposed to play him, attacking midfielder? It is his fault because ‘the back steps have returned’. And who makes them, the tips vertically in this team? It is his fault because ‘he is 4-3-1-2 and does not have the right men’. Why, for the 4-4-2 yes?
Let’s forget about assorted considerations worthy of the most vulgar of sports bars. On Giampaolo I had enormous doubts regarding the I take over in the race, certainly not on the absolute value of the man and the coach. But finding responsibility for the Bellinzona coach in yesterday’s defeat means being prejudiced, at best, or in bad faith. Moreover, a draw in Spezia-Samp would not have disappointed anyone. The difference, as often happens in races so poor in content, was made by the details, the centimeters and the luck. Doria hits a post, Spezia doesn’t. Game, match, match. Three points in the pocket. With reversed episodes, we would be exalting ourselves in praise and paean.
Rather, it seems clear to me that Sampdoria has a gigantic, sensational problem in the last few twenty-thirty meters of field. Think about it: throughout the season do you remember more goals resulting from chance, from personal invention, from the play of the individual, from the opponent’s error, or more goals from maneuvered and reasoned actions? The Sampdoria, simply, do not create chances. The problem concerns the attackers, of course. Caputo is unrecognizable – and not suitable for playing far from the area, he has always given his best in the heart of the opposing defense – and if Gabbiadini does not go into action, there are pains. But the chances are also built with a high pressing of the midfield, with the movements of the winger or full backs, and through the verticalizations and the assumptions of responsibility of the most experienced players. What Giampaolo, however, immediately underlined in his first pre-match press conference. The fear is one: we need props from the market. One in attack, at least, and one in the middle as well. Attacking midfielder, quality director, you see. For me, it takes more of a trimmer to use behind the tips.
Once again, we arrive at the stop with the mood of the people bottled up in the queue on the A10. And yes, it is an autobiographical detail, of course. This time there is a positive aspect, in the fifteen day break, namely the possibility for Giampaolo to work on ideas, mechanisms and intuitions, one step at a time. I hope the team will be granted the least union rest and the shortest possible time away from Mugnaini in the next two weeks. There is a way for everyone, one foot in front of the other. Players, clubs, coaches and even fans. I really enjoyed the pre-Spezia Saturday scenes at Mugnaini. I hope to see them again at Ferraris when Sassuolo arrives. We will need it badly.
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