Giancarlo Italiano: Wellington Phoenix head coach ahead of their second A-League match against Perth
October 25, 2024 • 8 mins
Some starts to this A-League season haven’t been as good as others.
While the shiny new Auckland FC took the win in their first match, the Wellington Phoenix pulled a draw against Western United.
They’re facing the Perth Glory Saturday night, Head Coach Giancarlo Italiano joining D’Arcy Waldegrave ahead of the match.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Waldegrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be I'm talking football now. I were joined by
the head coach of the Wellington Phoenix, the manager of
the GAFF for what you've to call him. Chiefly he
goes by Carlo joins us. Now, welcome to the program.
Last week you got underway. It was a one all
draw with Weston United. It was looking pretty good instily
(00:33):
you ended with some points, probably really what wasn't what
you really wanted, John Kelly, what was the biggest positive
out of last week's game.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I think the positive was the first sixty seventy minutes.
I think for a large part, you know, we had
large control of the game with the ball, and defensively,
I don't think they I think their first shot on
target was the actual goal, so they kind of showed
you where the game was at. And then I think
once they scored, and then you know, they had I
(01:05):
think had some more off the bench with the substitutions,
and I think we kind of lost a little bit
of our structure. And again I think it was it
was probably the best opportunity time to take advantage of
the goal and the momentum and in the end we
wrote it out. And the crazy thing is, we still
had two big chances after the goal that we could
have capitalized on and we didn't. So all in all,
(01:27):
I was very I was very pleased with the performance
up until you know, I made the substitutions, and I
think there's a lot to take from there. There's you know,
six new starters, we had a lot of you know,
I wouldn't say any imbalance, but we have a lot
of young players that's still finding their feet in the league,
which is very, very It's not an easy thing to
(01:49):
you know, to make that shortfall of experience. So again,
we're one game better and we're get a really tough
opponent this week, so that's going to be a tough
but we can we can progress from that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Must be quite difficult to face up to the fact
they had more energy off the beam. So that's got
to burn, doesn't it? For yourself and for your players too.
This is something that you can control, I would suggest,
So how do you bridge that? How do you talk
to the players about that? Because it's a bit of
a slap in the face, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Chiev Yeah, well, look I think you'd like to think
in an ideal world, whenever you make a substitution, that
you know it's going to be positive and that you
know sometimes you rely on the experience of the player
to get through and recognize, you know, the moments. But
you know, sometimes football is you know, it's never it's
never black and white. You know, sometimes you don't know
(02:39):
what the dynamic is on the pitch when you when
you make the substitutions. I've seen so many times. You know,
sometimes you take one player out could be the crucial peg,
and then you know it can fall very very quickly.
But I think it was more to do with the
fact that where I think both teams, you know, we're
at different points. Weston had a lot of preseason games.
(03:00):
We've had three well on the road for all of those,
we had a break, we had a lot of international windows.
I think it really came down more to you know,
really loads and legs in the end that can be
fixed with a longer periods.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
In our environment, you see the players finding their feet,
the young guys haven't he found their feet to a
degree actually made that progress or what you'd expect them
to make anyway under that kind of pressure.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, so maybe I'll scale that back a little bit.
Like if I look at the success of last year's team.
You know, we had Finn Sermon, Bernald Alex Poulsen. That
was a generational players that did well. Even though they
were young. They were in the environment for about two
to three years, so they understood the pressures of the league.
They understood the intensity of the games. They understood the
(03:50):
discipline and commitment that's needed in order to sustain performance.
These guys now, Hughesy Shares, Nathan Walker, Finkanchi, they're in
their second well not Nathan Walker, but the other boys
are all in their second year. Experience what they did
last year. We limited game time, I mean usually played
a significant part last year in terms of off the bench,
(04:12):
ball was never really a starter. Shares as well the
same Finkanchi played a couple of handful of starts and
so on. So they're building on those experiences. Now what
we need to bridge is that consistency of performance and
making sure that they can turn over you know, a
week after week, and that's the hardest thing in football
is coming and playing at a level that's consistent and
(04:32):
you know, even on your worst performance, you know, making
sure that you know, if you're not playing an eight
out of ten, that you can still churn out a
you know six, you know out of ten and get
you through the game. The problem is with a lot
of young players when they come into the league, you know,
because they're motivated, they come in, they want to prove something.
You know that the performance is usually peaked at a
(04:54):
very at a high level at the start. But what
usually happens is with a lot of young players is
once they ride through that initial peak, you know, is
that now expectation builds, and with the expectation becomes a
heavy wait in terms of the mind and so on,
and then how you deal with that adversity. So you know,
the ones that survive are the ones that you know,
mentally come prepared and have to go through that that suffering.
(05:18):
So our players are no different. I don't envisage that
their path, you know, is going to be, you know,
one where they accelerate straight to the top. Ben Old,
for example, you know he needed those three Well, it's
four years in the environment, you know, in order to
get to where he did, you know, and you had
a couple of tough years where he wasn't even in
(05:39):
contention not playing. So these guys are all in the
same boat.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It doesn't get any harder than traveling as far as
it's to take on Perth, which is a long way.
Every time you do this, regardless of how long you've
been around of the business, what tweaks do you feel
you have to make to make it easier? Is it
possible or is it more of a case of like
it is what it is, just get a monkst But
I'm sure from a performance point of view, you'd always
(06:05):
be looking at some way to negate the trip. Surely.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean I got to
ask before the thing is. I mean, I've been this
my six year at the club, and we've tried everything.
We've had longer extended periods here in Perth where we've
become a week early to prepare. We've had a two
day lead in, which is essentially come in. We had
one training session and one day off that I think
we lost that game as well. We won a game
(06:32):
here with a three day lead in and we didn't
play any football. We just low block Perth and just
try to hit them on the counter attack, and that
kind of worked, but I think there's a secret formula.
The one thing that I've changed for this period is,
as the first time we've ever done it, is trained
(06:53):
at the game time with an extended period. We've had
three training sessions starting at six forty five in the evening,
and to be honest, I'm learning more about this whole
process than I am with a normal routine. Just filling
in the days is probably the hardest part to deal with,
you know, like what the players are doing, you know,
(07:13):
waiting up until training. You can have meetings and so on,
but you know there's a lot of waiting time. You
don't want them to physically exert themselves as well, because
they have training and need to be applied, so you
know as well the acclimatization I've had in the back
of my head. The big thing is getting rid of
that time difference by training late. But also I'm also
(07:34):
putting one step ahead thinking about the derby the week
after and making sure that you know the players, you know,
are closer to training when they get back.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
With the hour difference, that derby will be huge. Some
Carlo Italian I know he'd coach manager at Gaffer of
the Wellington Phoenix. We thank you very much for your
time and it's so nice to talk to you knowing
there's so much more to this game than just formation.
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Thanks to Darsie.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Waldegrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be I'm talking football now. I were joined by
the head coach of the Wellington Phoenix, the manager of
the GAFF for what you've to call him. Chiefly he
goes by Carlo joins us. Now, welcome to the program.
Last week you got underway. It was a one all
draw with Weston United. It was looking pretty good instily
(00:33):
you ended with some points, probably really what wasn't what
you really wanted, John Kelly, what was the biggest positive
out of last week's game.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I think the positive was the first sixty seventy minutes.
I think for a large part, you know, we had
large control of the game with the ball, and defensively,
I don't think they I think their first shot on
target was the actual goal, so they kind of showed
you where the game was at. And then I think
once they scored, and then you know, they had I
(01:05):
think had some more off the bench with the substitutions,
and I think we kind of lost a little bit
of our structure. And again I think it was it
was probably the best opportunity time to take advantage of
the goal and the momentum and in the end we
wrote it out. And the crazy thing is, we still
had two big chances after the goal that we could
have capitalized on and we didn't. So all in all,
(01:27):
I was very I was very pleased with the performance
up until you know, I made the substitutions, and I
think there's a lot to take from there. There's you know,
six new starters, we had a lot of you know,
I wouldn't say any imbalance, but we have a lot
of young players that's still finding their feet in the league,
which is very, very It's not an easy thing to
(01:49):
you know, to make that shortfall of experience. So again,
we're one game better and we're get a really tough
opponent this week, so that's going to be a tough
but we can we can progress from that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Must be quite difficult to face up to the fact
they had more energy off the beam. So that's got
to burn, doesn't it? For yourself and for your players too.
This is something that you can control, I would suggest,
So how do you bridge that? How do you talk
to the players about that? Because it's a bit of
a slap in the face, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Chiev Yeah, well, look I think you'd like to think
in an ideal world, whenever you make a substitution, that
you know it's going to be positive and that you
know sometimes you rely on the experience of the player
to get through and recognize, you know, the moments. But
you know, sometimes football is you know, it's never it's
never black and white. You know, sometimes you don't know
(02:39):
what the dynamic is on the pitch when you when
you make the substitutions. I've seen so many times. You know,
sometimes you take one player out could be the crucial peg,
and then you know it can fall very very quickly.
But I think it was more to do with the
fact that where I think both teams, you know, we're
at different points. Weston had a lot of preseason games.
(03:00):
We've had three well on the road for all of those,
we had a break, we had a lot of international windows.
I think it really came down more to you know,
really loads and legs in the end that can be
fixed with a longer periods.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
In our environment, you see the players finding their feet,
the young guys haven't he found their feet to a
degree actually made that progress or what you'd expect them
to make anyway under that kind of pressure.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, so maybe I'll scale that back a little bit.
Like if I look at the success of last year's team.
You know, we had Finn Sermon, Bernald Alex Poulsen. That
was a generational players that did well. Even though they
were young. They were in the environment for about two
to three years, so they understood the pressures of the league.
They understood the intensity of the games. They understood the
(03:50):
discipline and commitment that's needed in order to sustain performance.
These guys now, Hughesy Shares, Nathan Walker, Finkanchi, they're in
their second well not Nathan Walker, but the other boys
are all in their second year. Experience what they did
last year. We limited game time, I mean usually played
a significant part last year in terms of off the bench,
(04:12):
ball was never really a starter. Shares as well the
same Finkanchi played a couple of handful of starts and
so on. So they're building on those experiences. Now what
we need to bridge is that consistency of performance and
making sure that they can turn over you know, a
week after week, and that's the hardest thing in football
is coming and playing at a level that's consistent and
(04:32):
you know, even on your worst performance, you know, making
sure that you know, if you're not playing an eight
out of ten, that you can still churn out a
you know six, you know out of ten and get
you through the game. The problem is with a lot
of young players when they come into the league, you know,
because they're motivated, they come in, they want to prove something.
You know that the performance is usually peaked at a
(04:54):
very at a high level at the start. But what
usually happens is with a lot of young players is
once they ride through that initial peak, you know, is
that now expectation builds, and with the expectation becomes a
heavy wait in terms of the mind and so on,
and then how you deal with that adversity. So you know,
the ones that survive are the ones that you know,
mentally come prepared and have to go through that that suffering.
(05:18):
So our players are no different. I don't envisage that
their path, you know, is going to be, you know,
one where they accelerate straight to the top. Ben Old,
for example, you know he needed those three Well, it's
four years in the environment, you know, in order to
get to where he did, you know, and you had
a couple of tough years where he wasn't even in
(05:39):
contention not playing. So these guys are all in the
same boat.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It doesn't get any harder than traveling as far as
it's to take on Perth, which is a long way.
Every time you do this, regardless of how long you've
been around of the business, what tweaks do you feel
you have to make to make it easier? Is it
possible or is it more of a case of like
it is what it is, just get a monkst But
I'm sure from a performance point of view, you'd always
(06:05):
be looking at some way to negate the trip. Surely.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean I got to
ask before the thing is. I mean, I've been this
my six year at the club, and we've tried everything.
We've had longer extended periods here in Perth where we've
become a week early to prepare. We've had a two
day lead in, which is essentially come in. We had
one training session and one day off that I think
we lost that game as well. We won a game
(06:32):
here with a three day lead in and we didn't
play any football. We just low block Perth and just
try to hit them on the counter attack, and that
kind of worked, but I think there's a secret formula.
The one thing that I've changed for this period is,
as the first time we've ever done it, is trained
(06:53):
at the game time with an extended period. We've had
three training sessions starting at six forty five in the evening,
and to be honest, I'm learning more about this whole
process than I am with a normal routine. Just filling
in the days is probably the hardest part to deal with,
you know, like what the players are doing, you know,
(07:13):
waiting up until training. You can have meetings and so on,
but you know there's a lot of waiting time. You
don't want them to physically exert themselves as well, because
they have training and need to be applied, so you
know as well the acclimatization I've had in the back
of my head. The big thing is getting rid of
that time difference by training late. But also I'm also
(07:34):
putting one step ahead thinking about the derby the week
after and making sure that you know the players, you know,
are closer to training when they get back.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
With the hour difference, that derby will be huge. Some
Carlo Italian I know he'd coach manager at Gaffer of
the Wellington Phoenix. We thank you very much for your
time and it's so nice to talk to you knowing
there's so much more to this game than just formation.
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Thanks to Darsie.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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