Former Inter player Thiago Motta spoke in length with Gazzetta dello Sport on his playing career among other topics and firstly spoke on if he had any regrets.
“No, nothing. I have had a great life. I have won titles and the Champions League. I have been in great cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Milan and Paris, I have gotten to know and learn so much about them. I remember my last game in Paris, the celebration, the greetings and the tears. There was not even any time for wiping my tears until I started the second part of my career, in Coverciano.”
Motta has now turned himself in to a coach and spoke on what his football philosophy is and which team best epitomises his ideas.
“Attacking with a short team with high pressure and the ability to move around the pitch together, both with and without the ball so that every player has at least 3-4 solutions and a bunch of teammates close and ready to help out. The challenge in football is sometimes doing the simplest things: control, passing and getting out of marking. I do not like numbers being so strongly connected to the formations of a team, because they do not always tell the truth. You can be super attacking with a 5-3-2 and defensive with 4-3-3. It depends on the quality of the players and the attitude. I have seen a phenomenon like Eto’o playing fullback, one of the secrets of the triplete winning Inter. In a recent game, two of my defenders were players that had the number 9 and number 10 jerseys last year. But this does not mean that I will not have true defenders like Samuel or Chiellini on my team.
“Guardiola’s Manchester City best showcase my ideas. Against Manchester United they scored a goal after having completed 44 passes. I showed that sequence to my boys and we managed to score after 16 passes against Napoli, so we are still far behind.”
He then spoke on Barcelona’s style and his previous encounters with them
“Barcelona rob you of possession and when you finally get the ball they close all spaces. Do you know what my toughest game was in my career? The second game against Barcelona in 2010 when we lost 2-0 and they played without Messi and Ibrahimovic. They had 1000 touches and it was not easy. We did not even know the colour of the ball after that game. Chasing the ball for a whole match makes you go crazy.”
He then spoke on who he believes is the best manager nowadays and the best manager he played under.
“Guardiola, he is the king of the modern game but I also admire Zidane. Ancelotti was the best I had. He knows how to play impressive football and managed the dressing room perfectly, he knew how to prepare the matches and managed also the psychology and human relations. Carlo is unique, he wins everybody’s respect by being normal.”
Motta then spoke on another of his former managers in Jose Mourinho.
“He is a winner, in a sense that he has only one goal in his mind: winning. He does not care for the show. Mourinho has two faces, a happy one when he wins and an angry one when he loses. If you played well but lost, he could not find any positive things in that. When playing badly but winning he was happy. Mourinho’s games are played in two areas, his area where you almost have to die in order to prevent the opponent to score and the opponents area. The midfield is an annoying path between the two battlefields. The preferred thing is to skip it, the tiki taka is not the Mourinho way. He does not look for the beautiful, he wants an enemy and if he does not have one he creates one. At one point we had an 11 point advantage in the league and lost one game and drew the next one. On the following Monday he held a 15 minute lecture attacking everyone: Galliani, Milan, Roma, the referees and Juventus. Instead of trying to recharge the team.”
Motta then spoke on Mourinho’s management at Inter.
“It would have been hard for most people, but not for him. Mou loves people with a personality and in that edition of Inter there were many. He once said: “If I should go to war I would bring Lucio” and he was right. When I met Lucio in the mornings I immediately understood if I should greet him or leave him alone, both him and Samuel were very quiet during practices, they became two beasts. But also Cordoba was a player you did not joke with, then there was Eto’o who was a true leader, Maicon with a great personality and Sneijder who signed with us the night before the derby and then at the night of the derby was the best player on the pitch. José’s strength is to convince you to die for your teammate and for the team, not for him.”
He was then quizzed on whether Inter’s Triplete winning side was the best team he played in.
“It was incredibly strong and could have and should have remained as strong for a couple of years after the triplete. But there are also other teams. Playing in Barcelona together with Xavi, Iniesta and Deco was amazing. But I was also amaze by the 2016 edition of PSG with Laurent Blanc on the bench and players like Ibra, Thiago Silva, Lavezzi and Cavani. A bunch of crazy, a dirty dozen. We could have won the Champions League but was eliminated by Manchester City.”
He then spoke on his admiration for Jurgen Klopp and if he is similar to Mourinho.
“Yes, I like him a lot. I like his passion and how he has convinced players like Mané to do a great job for the team. A bit like Eto’o did. Comparing someone with Mourinho is not good for anyone, not even for Klopp. But he is one of the coaches who convinces you, like Gasperini who I had the fortune to play under at Genoa, now he is doing great things with Atalanta. I hope he will get another chance to coach a great team, that would be most interesting to watch.”
Motta penultimately spoke on who he thinks can win the Champions League and tipped Inter to be a dark horse.
“Five teams can win it. Barcelona, Solari’s Real Madrid, Manchester City, PSG and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus. Juventus has already been in the final recently but in those times they lacked a player that could decide games, now they have signed one.
“Roma showed last season that anything can happen and Inter could be the dark horse this year. Playing in two competitions you depend on injuries, being in the zone and what kind of teams you get. From quarter finals to the final, Inter should not set any limits. But it would be a surprise and I do not think the team can win.”
He concluded the interview by speaking on Inter possibly challenging Juventus for the title.
“The team is not ready yet but Juventus’ success should not be an excuse for the others, they can not always win, no one can, they will stop and I think that Inter will be the team to stop them.”