Torino’s Mr Angry hoping to upset Juve
Di Francesco on the brink as Roma slide continues
MILAN, Dec 13, (RTRS): He is known as one of Italy’s angriest coaches but on Saturday Torino’s Walter Mazzarri will hope to make the headlines as the man whose team handed runaway Serie A leaders Juventus a first league defeat of the season.
Mazzarri’s arguing with match officials has earned him three sendings-off already this season, most recently in Sunday’s 0-0 draw at AC Milan – only his third game back on the touchline after doctors had ordered him to take a rest.
“The president and the doctors made me take a break and they were right, because I did need a complete checkup,” he said on his return. “Now I am back, feeling better than ever, fired up and eager to do well.” There are no exact figures but Italian media said the Milan match was around the 20th time that Mazzarri had been ordered from the touchline in his 17-year coaching career.
Despite the dismissal, Mazzarri was let off with a warning by Serie A’s disciplinary tribunal and will be able to sit on the bench when his sixth-placed side face their bigger and more famous neighbours on Saturday.
It is a tough ask for Torino, who have beaten Juve only once in their last 23 meetings.
Juventus have dropped only two points in their first 15 league games of the season, putting them eight points clear of Napoli and well on course for an eighth successive title.
Mazzari’s old club Napoli, who went out of the Champions League in midweek after a 1-0 loss at Liverpool, are away at Cagliari on Sunday while third-placed Inter, who also failed to reach the last-16 of the Champions League after only drawing at home to PSV Eindhoven, host Udinese.
Mazzari’s volatile temperament is likely to be put to the test by Juventus. He has a degree in degree in psychology and sociology which he says helps him deal with young players – even if it does not seem to calm him down during matches.
Sometimes it is the players who are on the end of the Mazzarri treatment but he usually reserves his wrath for match officials and the introduction of the VAR system has given him extra reason to be angry.
He was particularly annoyed after being sent off during the match against Fiorentina in October for what Mazzarri claimed was simply asking a question.
“What I cannot abide is the arrogance of power that allows you to send off a coach who was simply asking for an explanation,” he said, adding that referees were often failing to use the VAR system, especially at Torino matches.
“I want referees to recognize their mistakes,” he added. “Why don’t they use the VAR when we’re playing? Udinese, Bologna, Fiorentina and now this game. The technology is useless.” He concluded that rant by saying maybe officials just did not like him. “They think it’s better to send off Mazzarri, that way he won’t talk,” he said.
The front page of Italian daily Corriere dello Sport on Thursday is likely to have echoed the thoughts of the majority of AS Roma fans: “That’s enough!”.
It followed a limp 2-1 Champions League defeat away to Viktoria Plzen, the club’s third defeat of a five-match winless run, with the only silver lining being that a place in the last 16 had already been achieved.
Roma conceded twice for the fourth consecutive game and substitute Luca Pellegrini was sent off within nine minutes of being introduced.
The sub-zero temperatures at the Doosan Arena reflected the mood among the travelling support, with many already calling for the sacking of coach Eusebio di Francesco long before the snowy trip to The Czech
Inter vs Udinese beIN SPORTS
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Torino vs Juventus beIN SPORTS
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SPAL vs Chievo beIN SPORTS
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Fiorentina vs Empoli beIN
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Frosinone vs Sassuolo beIN
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Cagliari vs Napoli beIN SPORTS
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Roma vs Genoa beIN SPORTS
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Atalanta vs Lazio beIN SPORTS
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Republic.
Di Francesco, his players and the club hierarchy came under fire after a stunning collapse away to Cagliari last weekend.
Leading 2-0 with six minutes of normal time remaining, Roma’s mental fragility and defensive deficiencies were brutally exposed as Cagliari came back to draw 2-2, despite the Sardinians having two men sent off between their two goals.
It left Roma in eighth in Serie A after 15 rounds, five points away from the Champions League spots and 22 points adrift of runaway leaders Juventus.
This is the second time this season that the coach’s position has come under intense scrutiny.
Roma had a terrible start to the campaign, going five matches without a win. Results improved, with the exception of a 2-0 home loss to SPAL in October, but the club’s second slump of the season has most media outlets reporting that Di Francesco will be sacked if he fails to beat Genoa on Sunday.
His only salvation might be that there are a lack of any standout alternatives waiting in the wings.
Former Fiorentina coach Paulo Sousa, sacked by Chinese Super League club Tianjin Quanjin in October, is one while ex-Roma striker Vincenzo Montella, sacked by Sevilla in April, is another. Former Juventus and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is believed to be the number one choice of club president James Pallotta, but a move for the former Italy coach is complicated by his ongoing legal battle with Chelsea.
While Di Francesco is unlikely to last much longer if he cannot arrest his team’s slide, he is not the only individual to be singled out for criticism.
Sporting director Monchi’s summer transfer business has been questioned, with Alisson Becker, Radja Nainggolan and Kevin Strootman being sold and new arrivals like Javier Pastore, Bryan Cristante and Steven Nzonzi yet to make a significant impact.
Young Boys’ Guillaume Hoarau (left), fights for the ball against Juventus’ Rodrigo Bentancur during the Champions League Group H soccer match between Switzerland’s BSC Young Boys Bern and Italy’s Juventus Football Club
Turin at the Stade de Suisse in Bern, Switzerland on Dec 12. (AP)