World Cup profitable striker Luca Toni has accused Pep Guardiola of ruining soccer with the false 9 place, jokingly.
On Tuesday 15 October in Brescia, Luca Toni and Pep Guardiola had an amusing and jocular argument throughout a dinner between the 2 males and Roberto Baggio.
Guardiola, Toni and Baggio had been all team-mates at Brescia through the 2001/02 season underneath Carlo Mazzone the place they completed thirteenth in Serie A.
Throughout this reunion dinner, Toni jokingly instructed Guardiola he had “ruined soccer with the false 9. I could not discover a staff for 4 years.”
😅 Luca Toni tells Guardiola he ruined soccer with the false 9
“I couldn’t discover a staff for 4 years due to you” pic.twitter.com/TcA3PSbi4X
— Italian Soccer TV (@IFTVofficial) October 16, 2024
Toni then requested Pep “do you even like centre-forwards?” To which Guardiola retorted “I’ve Haaland, 60 targets,” earlier than ribbing his former team-mate: “we gained the Treble with that striker, however the centre-forwards should be good – perceive?”
Toni ended the video with a name for Pep to “cease with the false 9, okay? Massive centre-forwards are higher.”
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Guardiola and the false 9
Luca Toni’s tone was jocular however he had clearly been holding on to that grudge for a protracted, lengthy whereas as Guardiola hasn’t performed recurrently with a false 9 since his first season at Bayern Munich a decade in the past in 2013/14.
That season, Guardiola had Mario Gotze do a poor impression of the genius Lionel Messi produced at Barcelona underneath him. It did not work as properly, and Guardiola signed Robert Lewandowski in the summertime.
And at Metropolis, Guardiola did not use a false 9 a lot as he used Gabriel Jesus who linked play very properly however simply did not rating a lot, so individuals assumed he was a false 9. He wasn’t. And nonetheless Guardiola used Sergio Aguero after which, sure, Erling Haaland.
So for Toni to deliver it up now that Guardiola is enjoying the largest of massive centre-forwards is fairly humorous.
Even funnier is that whereas Guardiola undoubtedly mainstreamed the false 9, the one that actually “invented” (i.e. introduced it again) the false 9 was an Italian: Luciano Spalletti.
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Spalletti used the false 9 extensively at Roma as a technique to each cowl for the facet’s lack of conventional striker and likewise make use of Francesco Totti’s stupendous skill-set.
Each males (and Baggio) laughed and everybody gave the impression to be having a superb time.
