Sarri: ‘Don’t compare me to Guardiola’

By Football Italia staff

Napoli Coach Maurizio Sarri snaps at journalists for implying he’s “provincial”, and comparing him with Pep Guardiola.

A Sky journalist asked the tactician what he’d take from the Manchester City boss in the Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s match, and the Partenopei Coach didn’t take kindly to the question.

“I’d like your network to stop talking about provincialism on my part,” Sarri said.

“Then it’s not possible to compare me to Guardiola, who is a mythical figure and the best in the business. I have my ideas, but I’ve won nothing compared to some others.

“The provincialism? You’ve done it on several occasions, and on a programme on Sunday evening.

“What I like about Guardiola’s game is the way they construct the play, coming out from the back with a unique speed and great movement which they did against us too.

“We’re talking about an absolute level, we’re talking about one of those Coaches who changed the way we see football.

“In the first match they were devastating in the first 20 minutes, we should ask UEFA if they can come on to the pitch after 21.

“They deserve great credit for what they did in the first match, no-one has escaped our pressing like that.

“We need to try to drag them into deep water, they’re often 2-0 up after half an hour. We need to keep it in the balance, because they’re not used to that.

“We have to get into the game right away, we can create chances but we’ll need to play an extraordinary defensive match.

“The match will definitely be the same as the first in terms of interpretation, Guardiola’s team won’t play a different style and we can’t, so it’ll be the incidents which change the game.

“Are they unbeatable? No, because no-one is. But they’re the best team in Europe, trained by the best Coach in Europe.

“What have I said to my players? If I spoke to you as I speak to my players, you’d have to bleep out the entire press conference…

“I’ve told them that what they have to do with City is put themselves in a positive situation, then the decisive game will be with Shakhtar.”

Sarri has also been compared to Arrigo Sacchi, but he’s not fond of that either.

“If I stopped doing this job right now, no-one would remember me because I haven’t won anything.

“That comparison is an insult to Arrigo, who profoundly changed European football. Everyone says you win with great players, but they became great with him.

“[Marco] Van Basten became great with him, [Ruud] Gullit became great with him. [Franco] Baresi was finished in Serie B, he had a leap in quality with Sacchi.”

The Coach was also asked if he’d make changes, just as he did in the first match.

“I think if a team wants to play at this level, you have to be able to make three or four changes without losing strength,” Sarri said.

“We can’t change our appearance just because we make some changes.

“City’s most dangerous player? Ederson. I’m being serious, because their goalkeeper didn’t miss a single ball out from the back, he played 50 balls with the defence and got them all right, playing well through our pressing.”

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