New Southampton manager Ivan Juric assures he wants to bring ‘Atalanta style’ football to the Premier League, having learned directly from Gian Piero Gasperini.
Juric spent most of his career in Italy, first as a player and then a coach, where he worked at Genoa, Crotone, Hellas Verona and Torino.
He spent under two months at Roma this season, overseeing 12 competitive games before he was sacked on November 10, but is now starting again at Southampton FC.
“I’m delighted to be here, the Premier League is the best in the world, it’s a great opportunity to see the best players and stadiums,” said Juric in a press conference.
“I had some contact two years ago, it was the first time that I started thinking about Southampton. At the time, I was still the coach of Torino and I stayed there.
“I am always thinking about and watching games, last year I was very interested in Southampton. I know lots of players because, unlike two years ago, I was watching a lot more television.
“It was my wish to come here. I was watching all their games this year. I saw some good things and some bad, I think the team has the potential to do much better than they are doing now and that is one of the reasons why I am optimistic.
“We can do better, we can play better. I saw talent and I think we can be better to prove ourselves and start to pick up points.”
Juric learned from Atalanta maestro Gasperini
epa09913061 Atalanta's coach Gian Piero Gasperini and Torino's coach Ivan Juric at the end of the Italian Serie A soccer match Atalanta BC vs Torino FC at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, 27 April 2022. EPA-EFE/PAOLO MAGNI
epa09913061 Atalanta’s coach Gian Piero Gasperini and Torino’s coach Ivan Juric at the end of the Italian Serie A soccer match Atalanta BC vs Torino FC at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, 27 April 2022. EPA-EFE/PAOLO MAGNI
Southampton are currently eight points adrift of safety and have a terrible goal difference of -25, a seemingly doomed situation for Juric to turn around.
“I know it will be a very tough job and nobody has previously stayed in the Premier League with this history, but there are a lot of good players and we can be much better in some moments of the game.
“I am optimistic, I saw the mentality and it’s the first step to doing better. We need something exceptional. The guys have to be very motivated to do something that nobody ever did.”
Juric famously was a player first under Gasperini at Crotone and Genoa for 215 matches, then began his management career as assistant to his former boss.
Serie A is now full of various players who learned that style from Gasperini, while Atalanta are top of the table and fresh from winning the Europa League, so it is more in fashion than ever before, based on a three-man defence.
“It’s a high-pressure style,” confirmed Juric in today’s press conference.
“What I want from my team is to be very competitive, solid and with time we will get better in the possession and attacking.
“Maybe people don’t know my way of playing in Torino or Verona because we didn’t play in Europe.
“But the style is Atalanta style and you watch a game against Arsenal or Liverpool. We want to press high and play good and a little bit of everything.”
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