Cannavaro responds to rumors and identifies the main problem

Uzbekistan national team head coach Fabio Cannavaro responded to reports that he had left the team after the World Cup and gone to Italy on holiday. The Italian coach said he had stayed with the players until the end of the tournament and that his subsequent trip was linked to a break in the Uzbekistan Super League.

At a press conference held at the Uzbekistan Football Association on August 5, Cannavaro also openly discussed the national team’s main problem at the World Cup. In his view, the players have not yet fully adapted to playing at a high tempo for long periods.

“I did not leave before the World Cup was over”

After the World Cup, some outlets reported that Cannavaro would not return to Tashkent, and that he had traveled from New York to Italy to remain on holiday until September.

At the press conference, the coach stressed that the sequence of events in those reports had been presented incorrectly.

“Reports that I immediately went to Italy on holiday after the World Cup are not true. I stayed with the national team at the hotel in New York until the end of the World Cup.”

Cannavaro explained that he had not left the national team before the tournament ended. Later, when a break occurred in the Uzbekistan Super League, he briefly returned home.

After league matches resumed, he returned to Uzbekistan and continued monitoring the performances of local players.

Super League matches remain under observation

Cannavaro said that the process of assessing candidates for the national team had continued. According to him, the coaching staff regularly watches Super League matches and analyzes the players’ physical condition and on-field actions.

This process is important for the national team’s new phase after the World Cup. The tournament showed that, in addition to individual skill, Uzbekistan’s players need to improve their tempo of play and speed of decision-making.

Cannavaro recalled that he had spoken about this shortcoming several months before the tournament as well.

The main problem is maintaining a high tempo

The Italian coach once again stressed that the national team’s biggest task is to increase the intensity of its play.

“I have always said that the players need to play at a high tempo. I knew in advance that the pace of play at the World Cup would be extremely high.”

In Cannavaro’s view, at World Cup level, an opponent gives a player very little time to receive the ball, look around and make a decision. The team must move quickly under pressure and maintain the same tempo throughout the match.

He also emphasized the need to improve physical preparation and intensity at press conferences held before the World Cup. Cannavaro said at the time that teams such as Colombia and Portugal could not be beaten through technique alone, and that the players had to fight until the very end in every situation.

The World Cup result exposed the problem

Uzbekistan failed to advance from the group stage at the first World Cup in its history. After the tournament, Cannavaro acknowledged that the World Cup level was extremely unforgiving and that even small mistakes could have a major impact on the result.

The coach’s new statement shows that he did not try to explain the defeats solely by a lack of experience. In his view, the main difference was evident in how the players performed under intense pressure, maintained the tempo and made the right decisions even when fatigued.

Cannavaro also made no secret of the fact that he had warned about this danger beforehand:

“Perhaps many people thought we would have no trouble at the World Cup. But I had said this before.”

Now results are needed, not warnings

The World Cup was a major learning experience for Uzbekistan’s national team. However, at the next stage, simply concluding that “the tempo was high” will not be enough.

The coaching staff must improve the physical preparation of players in the domestic league, build a squad capable of playing at high intensity and eliminate the weaknesses exposed at the World Cup.

One thing was clear from Cannavaro’s comments at the press conference: he put an end to the rumors about leaving, but did not hide the team’s main problem. The key question now is how much time and which decisions will be needed to solve it. Share your opinion in the comments and send the article to sports fans on Telegram or other social networks!