Parma, Pecchia: Today a Beautiful Performance
Parma’s coach, Fabio Pecchia, has hailed his team’s performance after their Boxing Day victory over Brescia in Serie B, highlighting both their quality in open play and solid defending. In an interview with Sky Sports, he praised the team’s hard work on the defensive front, showing resilience even when two of their goals were nullified, while taking on a team proficient in creating problems.
He said, “A quality performance emerged, as well as defensive solidity. Many times we played 4+2 and we worked well. We were facing a team that could create problems for us and the line worked very well even on the two disallowed goals. We were keen and strong to bring home the result and knew how to suffer when Brescia tried to come out.”
Discussing further about his team’s defensive phase, Pecchia mentioned the drive among all teams for Series A, even those who may appear dormant. Emphasising on defensive solidity coming from everyone, he expressed his joy upon a clean sheet. Meanwhile, he noted that in the offensive phase, the team has enormous creation potential.
Pecchia stated, “Absolutely. All teams are equipped and even if they hide, they want Serie A. There are games where you suffer, even today Brescia at times put us under and the solidity must come from a defensive phase made by all the men. When you don’t concede to me it’s a great joy, then in the offensive phase, we can create so much.”
Reflecting on any comparison with his Cremonese team, Pecchia noted similarities despite the distinct cultural makeup of the Parma dressing room. He acknowledged that the multicultural aspect of Parma could sometimes delay the maturation process for the younger players, which might be the only differing factor between his current and former team.
His words were, “There are similarities, Cremonese was the youngest team in Italian football and was formed from products of Italian youth sectors. Here I coach quality players, young and with potential, but we are a multicultural dressing room. The only difference is this, and it’s not a small thing, sometimes it slows down the boys’ maturing process. Heads down and we think about the return leg, which will be a completely different championship.”