Reuters Soccer Blog

Who is new Inter coach Gian Piero Gasperini?

It is the question on the lips of many football fans around the world. Why would the 2010 European champions recruit an unknown as coach?

Inter would argue Gasperini is not a nobody having guided Genoa to decent success in Serie A but the fact he was sacked by the mid-table side in November is not particularly aupiscious. He was also shocked to get the job.

Some may ask why no other club recruited him until now, but the simple answer is that coaches in Serie A are not allowed to train two team in the same season.

This doesn’t mean Gasperini was Inter’s first choice though. Far from it. Marcelo Bielsa, Andre Villas-Boas and Sinisa Mihajlovic were all contacted along with probably several other more high profile figures.

The fact Inter have struggled to recruit a top name after boasting Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez and Leonardo in the last year is probably as much a reflection on Serie A as it is on the club.

Italian football has been outstripped by Spain and England on the pitch and in terms of financial clout with the onset of UEFA’s financial fairplay likely to hit Inter and AC Milan quite badly given they rely on rich benefactor owners Massimo Moratti and Silvio Berlusconi.

Ageing stadiums, match-fixing scandals and hooliganism make Italy not the hot destination it was once was.

Soccer Break Wednesday – Champions League week special

Got your breath back yet? Perfected the Dejan Stankovic volley in your mirror ready to take out on the pitch? Well Tuesday’s first installment of four Champions League quarter-final evenings was spectacular and there is more to come on Wednesday.

First, a recap of last night. The Real Madrid backlash did kick in, though against the 10 men of Tottenham Hotspur and two extremely well-taken goals that on another night may have gone wide of the post.

Would 11 v 11 have made a difference? Is there any way back for Tottenham? And do you think some players may leave the club in search of Champions League next season if Spurs don’t qualify this time around?

And how about holders Inter Milan? Hopelessly outplayed in their last two games and with a creaking defence, can they score four unanswered goals in Germany to make the semi-finals? The Inter chairman has pledged his support for coach Leonardo but surely his days are numbered on this form.

So, Chelsea fans. Worried that a fired up Wayne Rooney will wreak havoc tonight after he was dropped by Coke? Or will that have taken the fizz out of the frontman? Frank Lampard seems to think his team will have to be on their guard against him. Predictions? Something tells us it’ll be a lot less open than Tuesday’s matches.

Finally, Barcelona v Shakhtar Donetsk just seems about as good as it gets. Two passing teams, easy on the eye, trying to outpass and outthink each other. Only a few more hours to wait so don’t worry.

Read here for a look at strike partnerships in the Champions League this season and of days gone by. Who does Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti pick then? Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba? What about Nicolas Anelka? Or a rejuvenated Salomon Kalou?

Serie A gets wackier as Leonardo joins Inter

Italian soccer on the pitch has a largely undeserved image of being boring, with 1-0 wins and catenaccio supposedly the norm.

Off the pitch Serie A is surely the craziest league in Europe with match-fixing scandals, coaches being sacked the day before the season, and players and managers switching between rivals like they were picking teams in the school playground. 

Former Inter Milan hero Zlatan Ibrahimovic joining AC Milan just a year after saying he was bored with Italy was weird enough but ex-Milan boss Leonardo becoming Inter coach takes the biscuit.

Leonardo is Milan through and through given he was also a player there but his season in charge of the Rossoneri last term was not that successful so why on earth would Inter president Massimo Moratti choose him to replace Rafael Benitez?

Can you imagine the reaction in England if Arsene Wenger went to manage Manchester United? Sure Mark Hughes was a top United player and went on to manage Manchester City but it wasn’t just one season later.

Yes Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho used to work at Barcelona but it was a while ago and he was only an assistant at the Nou Camp.

Inter had their fingers burnt once before employing a great rivals’ coach. Marcello Lippi was gone in a year after joining from Juventus in 1999.

Ferrara’s Rocky spirit cannot hide the failures of another rookie

Under pressure Juventus boss Ciro Ferrara has come out fighting after a fourth defeat in five matches but it may not be enough for another first-time coach to save his job.

“One of my friends, one of the few I have at the moment, said to me, ‘you are like Rocky’. I am full of punches and blood but I say to my opponent, I am not hurt, punch harder because you are not hurting me,” Ferrara said in the wake of a 3-0 home defeat by AC Milan.

“There is nothing that could knock me down, my mother punched harder.”

His determination is admirable but are Juve now regretting appointing a man with no real managerial experience to replace Claudio Ranieri last May?

In recent times, Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola is possibly the only man to have succeeded in his first big club job.

Ferrara, previously much-loved in Turin as a no-nonsense defender, is in danger of following some other rookie coaches out the door.

Serie A coaches gang up on the kids of today

The coaches of the three biggest Serie A clubs recently indulged in what has always been one of the favourite pastimes of the older and wiser — picking fault with today’s youngsters.

Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho kicked things off when he criticised 19-year-old forward Mario Balotelli’s approach in training and suggested that footballers of his age were more interested in Ferraris and Bentleys than getting on with the job.

“It’s probably a generational problem,” Mourinho said. “At the moment it’s very difficult to find a player who’s 19 or 20 and thinks like a man.”

Reporters asked Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara what he thought, but if they hoped to stir up another Mourinho-versus-the-rest-of-Italy row, they were disappointed.

“I agree. It’s a problem of values,” Ferrara said. “Things have changed a lot and the purely sporting side often drops down to a secondary level.

“A young player becomes a star after just a few matches in Serie A. Million-euro contracts arrive and thoughts immediately go to the national team. It’s difficult for them to keep their feet on the ground.”

Milan avoid another Didaster but are they reborn after Real win?

A memorable 3-2 victory for AC Milan at Real Madrid on Wednesday as much for the goalkeeping howlers as great play.

When Milan keeper Dida produced an all too frequent error to give Raul the chance to equal Gerd Mueller’s record of 66 goals in the three main European club competitions, it looked like a familiar story for a struggling Milan this season under new coach Leonardo.

It has been labelled a “Didaster” by Italian media but thanks to a stoming second-half performance, Milan pulled off a result even their most hardened of fans cannot have expected given their shaky start to the campaign.

But is it just papering over the cracks and were Real just too bad? Alexandre Pato scored twice, the first aided by Iker Casillas’s rush of blood, but otherwise laboured. Ronaldinho had another quiet evening on his return to Spain.

What the win did show is that Milan are at least finding a bit more grit and determination. They also conceded first in last weekend’s 2-1 win over AS Roma and fought back.

Milan’s problems are not fixed but Leonardo can dine out on the Bernabeu victory for a while.

Should Leonardo listen to Berlusconi about Ronaldinho?

After putting Leonardo in charge of AC Milan, owner Silvio Berlusconi has been trying to help the novice coach get to grips with the job with advice on how to tease the best from Ronaldinho.

The Italian premier, who has again denied he is considering selling a stake in the club, thinks Ronaldinho can be Milan’s “Usain Bolt” and fill the gap left by his Brazilian compatriot Kaka if he is used as a second striker rather than an playmaker.

Although Berlusconi has been careful with his transfer spending, and Milan could struggle again this term judging by the 4-0 derby hammering by Inter, he knows a thing or two about soccer and might have a point about Ronaldinho.

Leonardo is using his fellow Brazilian in the hole behind two strikers, probably his best position if he were in peak condition as it exploits his ability to conjure up chances for others and gives him room for his individual charges towards goal.

But he has not looked 100 percent fit for some time, so those wonderful runs are thin on the ground and the midfielders are having to do overtime because he does not chase back.

Using Ronaldinho as a striker might restore the team’s balance and lower the physical demands on him, simply because he would be nearer to goal and have less galloping to do. Being closer to the danger zone could lead to more goals too, which would bolster his fragile confidence.

Leonardo could pair him with powerful centre forward Marco Borriello or a goal poacher such as Filippo Inzaghi or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Alternatively he could make up a front line with in-form Alexandre Pato — a partnership that would be potentially unmarkable.

Do Juventus or Milan have the next Guardiola?

There is nothing new about putting expensively assembled football teams into the hands of former players with glorious on-field pasts and little coaching experience. But I think it’s fair to say that Pep Guardiola’s remarkable success in his maiden season in the Barcelona dugout contributed to AC Milan and Juventus recently appointing novice managers Leonardo and Ciro Ferrara.

Juve’s Italy defender Nicola Legrottaglie said he sees Ferrara as “the Italian response to Guardiola”. Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani, meanwhile, preferred to compare Leonardo to the precedent they set with Fabio Capello, who like the Brazilian was a club director before his 1991-96 stint in charge that produced four Serie A titles and a Champions League.

Leonardo’s apparent weakness is that he is absolutely new to coaching. Guardiola had been successful with Barcelona B before he got the first-team job at the Camp Nou. Ferrara can count on his experience at the helm of Juve’s youth team and at Marcello Lippi’s side in the Italy coaching staff, as well as the two matches he won in Serie A to clinch automatic Champions League qualification after Claudio Ranieri was sacked.

Ferrara’s challenge may be how to stamp his authority in the locker room. He now finds himself in charge of the team’s so-called senators, such as Alessandro Del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet, after playing alongside them before retiring in 2005. This could complicate matters if he wants to drop one of his old team mates. But if he is seen to favour them it could create rifts.

It might be easier for Leonardo to be the tough guy when necessary as, although he is younger than Ferrara, his playing days are further behind him.

Lippi, however, is confident Ferrara has what it takes to overcome these hurdles: “He has the charisma, personality, intelligence, wisdom and charm to establish a relationship with top level professionals and construct something important with them.”