Marcello Lippi “This time I Failed”

Marcello Lippi, very disappointed, said farewell to the Italy national squad in the press conference held after they lost to Slovakia:

“I take full responsibility. If a team arrives at such an important event as this with terror in their legs, heads and hearts, unable to express themselves as they needed to, then it means the coach has not prepared the squad properly on any level: technical, tactical and pyschological.”

After accepting his responsiblity, Marcello Lippi continued:

“I am sorry for Italian football fans, and for the federation. I felt this team could do well, and I did not prepare them properly.
I expected everything but the performance we saw in the first half, let’s not talk about the reaction in the second half. I didn’t think I’d win the World Cup a second time, but having to end my time with the national squad like this is awful. I thank all of you for these four years, some have been fantastic, some very disappointing.
I take full responsibility, it was me who built the group.
I was convinced and I wanted to go through this experience again after winning the World Cup in 2006. I am very sorry.”

What went wrong with the team’s performance in South Africa?
By now the former coach, Lippi had his own assessment:
“This time I failed to evoke the right motivation in my players.
We played two average games against Paraguay and New Zealand, but if we’d managed to repeat that level of play with some more punch in attack, it might’ve been enough. Instead, it all imploded today. I had said to the players, “The World Cup is here at last, it’s make or break tonight.
” I was obviously wrong to give this kind of pyschological message, because the team never got started, they never played, they didn’t create, they did nothing.
Our qualifying games were the norm for a team like Italy, it was the World Cup that didn’t go well. Pirlo and Buffon would’ve been fundamental, but I’m not looking for excuses, and I don’t want to play the victim. It’s always the boss who has to take responsibility.
I believe I played an important part in our victories, in the same way as I was an important part of this failure. What do I think about the state of Italian football? It’s not the best of times, but Italian football is not what we saw tonight for an hour and a half.”

Future of Italy