🎥 Farioli: Leaving Ajax, eyeing a move to manage in Italy | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli, currently looking for a new position after coaching Ajax, gave an interview to the microphones of Cronache di Spogliatoio. Below is the full version.

HATO AND THE CHANGE OF ROLES - Hato for me is a player for the Premier League or Real Madrid. I believe it's challenging to play as a central defender at the highest levels if you are 1.81 meters tall. In the analyses we conducted at the beginning of the season, Ajax conceded 60 goals in the league last year, maybe even a bit more. You understand that if you want to compete for the top positions... One of the problems we identified was some interpretations by the central defenders and a major issue with the full-backs: specifically, the full-backs' attitude towards defending and also attacking. So in this puzzle, one of the first things I was clear about was that Hato should play as a left-back. Based on his fundamental characteristics. He is a player with great technical quality, great physicality, so also capable of handling one-on-one situations despite being very young. He is a fast and quick player and, having played as a central defender, even without having a great defensive attitude, he still had... He brought with him those interpretations. He certainly had a bit more than those who played there before him. The other interpretation, and this is my personal one, is that it also created some different visions within the club, because for the team he was a central defender. I believe that at the highest levels if you are 1.81 meters tall, it's challenging to play... For me, he is a player for the Premier League or Real Madrid because he has everything ahead of him. Today he is in the Dutch National "A" team, and I think he can play as a central defender at certain times, but I see his career a few meters forward. Ideally as a central defender in a three-man defense, but I see him more as a full-back in a team that plays a certain type of football. And for me, he did it: it took a bit of time to convince both him and his agent, because then it was your job there... And then, as I said, the club saw him as a central defender. Because clearly, to play in the Netherlands, he is probably a player who can play 20 out of 34 matches as a central defender without any problems. He has quality in ball distribution and the ability to cover depth, but in everything that becomes a physical and technical duel with opponents, in my opinion, of a different level, in my opinion, it's not there. I believe it wasn't his ideal position. So I really started from the first day, I took him and talked to him in the office. I explained why, I explained from the videos I had seen, how we play, because clearly, it's one thing if you want a full-back who plays as an external forward or in our slightly more hybrid way of a player who plays a lot inside the field, who connects the game, who still gives an offensive contribution and who defensively can give you a certain type of facilitation. And he, I repeat, took 20 days to connect a bit, then in the first two official matches he scored, he found clear gratification. It would be interesting to ask him today where he would like to play. What role he plays exactly.

COACHING IN ITALY

The truth is that for me, having worked in many different leagues has given me, I believe, great flexibility from this point of view, and, I repeat, I feel very comfortable thinking about working in a new league that I have never done before.

I'll quote a phrase that one of your former players said about you, he said: "In Italy, they think that experience can only be gained here." A career like yours is not well understood, but maybe people rely a lot on the experience in Serie A in Italy compared to more multicultural paths, if you allow me the term.  How do you perceive it?

I believe it's the same thing that happens for players, right? There's always a bit of a thought that if a player hasn't played in Italy… Well, I think that football today, I repeat, at all levels, especially when you play in European competitions and you bring yourself to tactical, psychological, pressure challenges... But this also happens a bit in France, where there is a desire to have French coaches, in the Netherlands to have Dutch coaches, and a bit in Italy to have Italian coaches or those who have worked in Italy. I believe this is understandable to some extent because the connection is very direct: "he has already worked here, he knows." And this is important. In fact, in my staff, I have always wanted someone who knows the league and has had experience. I think it helps a lot because it helps you understand where you are going to play, the type of field, the type of environment you are going to face. The truth is that for me, having worked in many different leagues has given me, I believe, great flexibility from this point of view. And, I repeat, I feel very comfortable thinking about working in a new league. I have had the opportunity to work in three different leagues already, and still having done Serie A as a collaborator in Italy for three years. There is a certain knowledge of certain dynamics. But here, in my opinion, what matters most of all, I repeat, this is true for coaches but also for players, is the open-mindedness. I believe that for a coach when you go into a new context, the truth is that if you manage to bring 80% of what you have in mind, it's a great result, and then that 20% is the ability to adapt and the ability to connect with the new environment, with the new dynamics, and that 20% is what makes you achieve or not achieve the goals, from my point of view. Having a staff with many passports and being very open to integrating figures already in the club, so far, at least, has always created very interesting, very stimulating dynamics.

SLOT'S WORDS

We exchanged a few messages. I thanked him for his words, and we had a chat. It turned out to be a wonderful discovery.

I was very impressed by the words Slot said about you: “You have a great way of freeing the man”, so he knows your work very well. But above all, he recognized you for bringing many men to create chances in the final third of the field. What does it mean to you to know that a coach who starts from your foundations recognizes that kind of work?

I'm pleased because it means he watched the matches. Let's say it was an evaluation, allow me to say, with a bit more understanding compared to some other comments that have been made about me. Football is beautiful for this reason and clearly creates opinions because often everything is based on hearsay. Slot's words are certainly pleasing: he knows the league, the levels, and the values of the teams, and I believe he summarized in a few words what we tried to do from day one. I repeat, it pleases and also recognizes the greatness of a coach like him both from the point of view of knowledge but also human. What he has done both in the Netherlands and what he has done this year in England, I believe, speaks for itself about the person and the man he is.

WORKING ON INJURIES

It is a fundamental factor, players are assets of the club and now even recovery has become a job.

Reading the data, you have had 25% fewer injuries compared to the previous season while playing more. How do you work on injury prevention and recovery?

First of all, the coach must pay attention, so expose it as one of the key points to achieve a sporting result, because what recent studies tell us is that having players available or having players in the infirmary creates a huge difference in results, so I like to choose and be the one who makes the mistake in the lineup and not have players 'at the doctor's'. It's a mix of aspects that in the player's performance, there is clearly the impact of training, which as I said during the season, the time is really reduced to minutes on the field. A clearly collective part and then having the right supplements, so the integration of work, sometimes, even without the ball, physical work, compensatory work (so everything before training and everything that is after). In some things, I must also be open to removing fieldwork to reduce the load. And then there is this part which is 'invisible training' which is everything that revolves around: so what the guys eat, how they recover, how they sleep, how they can psychologically disconnect and reconnect quickly. For me, all these aspects are the things that 'drive me crazy', in a positive sense, because I believe that where you can still make a big difference is in these aspects and if before, indeed, between one match and another there were 7 days to tolerate psychological recovery. Today you have to work to recover: ice baths, sauna, eating at certain spots, eating certain things and keeping others away. The other aspect is when you can give the opportunity to disconnect and reconnect, something that for me a few years ago was like madness are the national breaks: you have many players out and we have given several days off to the group, and with the 'nationals' we have tried to invent free days during the season. I give the example of Šutalo: he played in the European Championship, is oriented, and in the middle of the week played the first friendly and after 5 days played the first official match and from there he hasn't stopped. And he played with us over 4500 minutes, plus with the National team he has always played all the matches. With us, he played 49, and add another 10-12 with the National team and now he is still playing.

HENDERSON AND BEING A MANAGER

He asked me at the beginning of the season 'How do you want me to call you: manager or gaffer?'. And I: 'As you wish Jordan'.

In Henderson's farewell post, the last sentence is 'Thank you Gaffa'. Which is the diminutive of 'Gaffer' which is a bit like 'mister' but for managers in England. He recognized you as a manager, he who has worked with great coaches, did it also give you a bit of awareness of reaching such important players?

In my experience in all the teams where I have been with experienced players, players who have had a certain level of past, I have always had a super relationship. As always, I believe in relationships and being together with certain players and people, the fundamental thing is always to create a direct relationship, a true relationship that connects people first and then the role we play. It has always been a bit like this and it was like this this year too. Clearly, I believe that the person comes first and then the coach demonstrates that what he has in mind can work and benefit the team and the individual.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 MAURICE VAN STEEN - AFP or Licensors