from onefootball.com
Sunday 19th May 2002
Giovanni Trapattoni was left to rue Alessandro del Piero's refusal to play in a deeper role as his side, bereft of ideas, crashed to the Czech Republic on Saturday. "He prefers to play as forward and I can't force him to play in another position," the Italy coach snapped.
Italy's preparations had been overshadowed by Del Piero's refusal to accept the playmakers role in the absence of injured midfielder Francesco Totti and Cristiano Doni.
So Rino Gattuso came into the centre with Cristiano Zanetti and Gigi di Biagio, while Filippo Inzaghi started as Christian Vieri's partner in attack.
Vieri came close early on, but otherwise Italy were clearly lacking a link from midfield to attack, a problem compounded by Trap's decision to omit national hero Roberto Baggio from the World Cup squad.
"Del Piero considers the deeper role behind the forwards as a limiting factor on his potential and I have to accept his point of view," Trap said.
Del Piero, who just failed to touch home a Gattuso cross after replacing Vieri at half time, defended his inflexibility.
"My opinion is clear and has been for a long time," he said. "I have no regrets about what happened."
Italy's workmanlike performance was in marked contrast to that of the Czech Republic who, still smarting from their failure to reach the World Cup finals, were inspired by Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer and Borussia Dortmund's Thomas Rosicky.
Rosicky in particular gave Parma defender Fabio Cannavaro a torrid time in the first half.
"We should have done better, they created a lot of problems for us right from the beginning of the match," Cannavaro said. "We played without an attacking midfielder but despite that we tried to play our normal game. During the first half we were simply off target with too many of our passes. There wasn't a problem of concentration."
It was Italy's first away defeat under Trap, who conceded his side had been well below their best. "We played poorly, that's clear and I can't deny it," he said. "We lacked clarity.
"Hopefully this will teach us a lesson. I tried to give the whole team a game and despite the score I substituted half of team at the break. We played with more order during the fist half, but the goal was to let everyone have a game."
"We wanted to play against a strong side and we certainly did that.
"We can't blame this defeat on the weather although some of the players told me they had problems breathing. Their legs were heavy and our midfield struggled to support our forwards. I think some of them were worried about getting injured and that may be why we weren't at our best."
Atalanta midfielder Cristiano Doni added: "It was an important test of our physical condition and it showed that we still have to work a lot. Day by day, the team will get stronger before our first match against Ecuador."
Sunday 19th May 2002
Giovanni Trapattoni was left to rue Alessandro del Piero's refusal to play in a deeper role as his side, bereft of ideas, crashed to the Czech Republic on Saturday. "He prefers to play as forward and I can't force him to play in another position," the Italy coach snapped.
Italy's preparations had been overshadowed by Del Piero's refusal to accept the playmakers role in the absence of injured midfielder Francesco Totti and Cristiano Doni.
So Rino Gattuso came into the centre with Cristiano Zanetti and Gigi di Biagio, while Filippo Inzaghi started as Christian Vieri's partner in attack.
Vieri came close early on, but otherwise Italy were clearly lacking a link from midfield to attack, a problem compounded by Trap's decision to omit national hero Roberto Baggio from the World Cup squad.
"Del Piero considers the deeper role behind the forwards as a limiting factor on his potential and I have to accept his point of view," Trap said.
Del Piero, who just failed to touch home a Gattuso cross after replacing Vieri at half time, defended his inflexibility.
"My opinion is clear and has been for a long time," he said. "I have no regrets about what happened."
Italy's workmanlike performance was in marked contrast to that of the Czech Republic who, still smarting from their failure to reach the World Cup finals, were inspired by Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer and Borussia Dortmund's Thomas Rosicky.
Rosicky in particular gave Parma defender Fabio Cannavaro a torrid time in the first half.
"We should have done better, they created a lot of problems for us right from the beginning of the match," Cannavaro said. "We played without an attacking midfielder but despite that we tried to play our normal game. During the first half we were simply off target with too many of our passes. There wasn't a problem of concentration."
It was Italy's first away defeat under Trap, who conceded his side had been well below their best. "We played poorly, that's clear and I can't deny it," he said. "We lacked clarity.
"Hopefully this will teach us a lesson. I tried to give the whole team a game and despite the score I substituted half of team at the break. We played with more order during the fist half, but the goal was to let everyone have a game."
"We wanted to play against a strong side and we certainly did that.
"We can't blame this defeat on the weather although some of the players told me they had problems breathing. Their legs were heavy and our midfield struggled to support our forwards. I think some of them were worried about getting injured and that may be why we weren't at our best."
Atalanta midfielder Cristiano Doni added: "It was an important test of our physical condition and it showed that we still have to work a lot. Day by day, the team will get stronger before our first match against Ecuador."
