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I listened to an absolutely fascinating interview with Patrice Evra on the 5-Live podcast this week. And managed to find a transcript on Gazzetta World:
http://gazzettaworld.gazzetta.it/news/serie-a/evra-tougher-premier-league/?refresh_ce-cp
It kind of underlines why despite having vastly superior resources EPL teams can still be made to look very ordinary when they come up against European opponents. And his anecdote about Scholes ties in with the piece I did on the blog about Jenas's anecdotes about the Spurs players rejecting Ramos's double training and dietary regimes etc.
Evra: Serie A much tougher than Premier League
The former Manchester United man believes that the Premier League may be better but that the discipline and desire needed to be successful in Italy makes it the tougher division
Former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra believes that it is much harder to be a success in Italy’s Serie A than it is in the Premier League.
The 34-year-old played at Old Trafford for eight years and was a big success with the Red Devils, before leaving last year to take up a new challenge in Turin.
He helped Juventus to the Scudetto, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana as well as reaching a Champions League final, where they were beaten by Barcelona.
“I really enjoyed my first year and I’m still enjoying myself,” Evra told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’ve learned a lot about football and how to be an even better professional, even although I was still a massive professional during my time in Manchester.
“The Premier League is like two boxers fighting. I give it to you and then you give it right back to me, but one is less strong and they’ll start to get tired and you’ll win the game.
“In Italy, it is like a chess game. You have to understand every movement before you play with your quality. I really want to learn and until the end of my career, than’s something I want to do every day.
“When I finish playing football, I’ll probably want to have an experience as a coach and I couldn’t go to a better place than Juventus to learn and to help me take that path. I’m so amazed with how we do things.
“We even watch videos of training sessions to see what is or isn’t going well. Before we play in a game, we know the other team so well and I never used to prepare for a game in that way.
“Italian football is so different in that way. For sure, I’ll say that English football is the best because people like to go and see people running everywhere but if you said it was more difficult than Italian football, I’d say no.
“The Premier League has so much adrenaline and passion with the fans but I can’t say it is the most difficult. People only have to come to Italy and see how tough it is for us against teams lower down the table because they are ready. They know my movement, they know my position. It is amazing the way they learn the game and make you prepare before it starts.”
In fact, 18 months or so later, the former Monaco man is still adjusting to just how intense and concentrated the preparation for each individual match is and shared some Juventus trade secrets – including bizarre training routines that he believes would be scoffed at if someone tried to implement them in the Premier League.
“Now before a game, I know exactly what I have to do,” continued the Frenchman. “Before, I was playing with my strength but now, and having more experience helps too, I’m playing with my brain. Everything in Italian football comes down to tactics.
“When you start training, we play a lot of 11 against 0 games. People will maybe laugh when they hear me say that we play on the pitch with nobody against us. But you have to get your movements right and repeat that for maybe 15 minutes, then when the coach thinks we know exactly where to be and pass the ball and everything, then you start training but that’s our warm-up.
“If you tried that in England, people wouldn’t understand. They’d say you are crazy. I remember Scholesy [Paul Scholes] kicking the ball away when Carlos [Queiroz] tried to do a game like that. Your brain has to be open to that.”
Coming from a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere during his time with Manchester United, Evra confessed that it took him time to come to terms with that was expected of him in Turin and learn his role.
However, he now completely understands what is expected of him and what is expected of any player at Juventus, who he likened to a bead necklace, where you are only as strong as your weakest link.
“At the beginning, I felt like a robot,” he admitted. “They told me, ‘pass the ball to him, then give it to him’ and I was a bit confused. I just wanted to play my football but they told me that Juventus is like a necklace.
“If one piece is broken, the whole thing is broken. It is exactly that way. That’s why every new player, when they come to Juventus, has to learn the way we play first. You can be good, strong, fast but if you don’t understand the system then you won’t play because the big star is the team, it isn’t one player.”
http://gazzettaworld.gazzetta.it/news/serie-a/evra-tougher-premier-league/?refresh_ce-cp
It kind of underlines why despite having vastly superior resources EPL teams can still be made to look very ordinary when they come up against European opponents. And his anecdote about Scholes ties in with the piece I did on the blog about Jenas's anecdotes about the Spurs players rejecting Ramos's double training and dietary regimes etc.
Evra: Serie A much tougher than Premier League
The former Manchester United man believes that the Premier League may be better but that the discipline and desire needed to be successful in Italy makes it the tougher division
Former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra believes that it is much harder to be a success in Italy’s Serie A than it is in the Premier League.
The 34-year-old played at Old Trafford for eight years and was a big success with the Red Devils, before leaving last year to take up a new challenge in Turin.
He helped Juventus to the Scudetto, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana as well as reaching a Champions League final, where they were beaten by Barcelona.
“I really enjoyed my first year and I’m still enjoying myself,” Evra told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’ve learned a lot about football and how to be an even better professional, even although I was still a massive professional during my time in Manchester.
“The Premier League is like two boxers fighting. I give it to you and then you give it right back to me, but one is less strong and they’ll start to get tired and you’ll win the game.
“In Italy, it is like a chess game. You have to understand every movement before you play with your quality. I really want to learn and until the end of my career, than’s something I want to do every day.
“When I finish playing football, I’ll probably want to have an experience as a coach and I couldn’t go to a better place than Juventus to learn and to help me take that path. I’m so amazed with how we do things.
“We even watch videos of training sessions to see what is or isn’t going well. Before we play in a game, we know the other team so well and I never used to prepare for a game in that way.
“Italian football is so different in that way. For sure, I’ll say that English football is the best because people like to go and see people running everywhere but if you said it was more difficult than Italian football, I’d say no.
“The Premier League has so much adrenaline and passion with the fans but I can’t say it is the most difficult. People only have to come to Italy and see how tough it is for us against teams lower down the table because they are ready. They know my movement, they know my position. It is amazing the way they learn the game and make you prepare before it starts.”
In fact, 18 months or so later, the former Monaco man is still adjusting to just how intense and concentrated the preparation for each individual match is and shared some Juventus trade secrets – including bizarre training routines that he believes would be scoffed at if someone tried to implement them in the Premier League.
“Now before a game, I know exactly what I have to do,” continued the Frenchman. “Before, I was playing with my strength but now, and having more experience helps too, I’m playing with my brain. Everything in Italian football comes down to tactics.
“When you start training, we play a lot of 11 against 0 games. People will maybe laugh when they hear me say that we play on the pitch with nobody against us. But you have to get your movements right and repeat that for maybe 15 minutes, then when the coach thinks we know exactly where to be and pass the ball and everything, then you start training but that’s our warm-up.
“If you tried that in England, people wouldn’t understand. They’d say you are crazy. I remember Scholesy [Paul Scholes] kicking the ball away when Carlos [Queiroz] tried to do a game like that. Your brain has to be open to that.”
Coming from a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere during his time with Manchester United, Evra confessed that it took him time to come to terms with that was expected of him in Turin and learn his role.
However, he now completely understands what is expected of him and what is expected of any player at Juventus, who he likened to a bead necklace, where you are only as strong as your weakest link.
“At the beginning, I felt like a robot,” he admitted. “They told me, ‘pass the ball to him, then give it to him’ and I was a bit confused. I just wanted to play my football but they told me that Juventus is like a necklace.
“If one piece is broken, the whole thing is broken. It is exactly that way. That’s why every new player, when they come to Juventus, has to learn the way we play first. You can be good, strong, fast but if you don’t understand the system then you won’t play because the big star is the team, it isn’t one player.”
