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Extended Clip - Federico Dimarco: A Left Foot Cheat Code For Inter Milan And Italy
1.1k Plays3 years ago
Nima Tavallaey, Carlo Garganese and John Solano do a deep dive on who Federico Dimarco is, the Inter Milan and Italy international wingback with the magical left foot.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
To listen to ALL complete episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP and become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian Football Podcast.
Who is Federico DiMarco?
00:00:06
Speaker
Yeah, well, let's talk about one of the players that really garnered a lot of attention, and rightfully so, and a guy that I have been on the record as saying I absolutely adore as a player for a variety of reasons. But the technical, not so quick, full back with a ton of technical and tactical awareness are my all-time favorites, which is
Is DiMarco suited for a back four?
00:00:30
Speaker
Why Federico de Marco is one of my favorites at the moment for the Azzurri. I mean, Carlo, as you alluded to, he stood out. He was phenomenal. What do you make of him?
00:00:44
Speaker
Well I think Nimmer will certainly give more detail than me because I know that Nimmer has been a fan of him for a long time and a long time before it became popular to be a fan of him. You've now seen a lot of people jump on the bandwagon now and
00:01:02
Speaker
you know, praise DiMarco. And I'll be honest, I was never hard on him. Doubts I've had of DiMarco, and I'm still not 100% convinced how suitable he is in a back four.
The Magic of DiMarco's Left Foot
00:01:13
Speaker
But there's one thing that there is absolutely no doubt with DiMarco, his delivery.
00:01:18
Speaker
his left foot is world-class. I'm not calling him a world-class player, of course he's not, but I'm saying his delivery is as good as anybody in world football. If you put him in an area on the pitch that's within 30 yards of the goal on the left, he will put it in
00:01:36
Speaker
on a six-pence wherever you want it. He'll put it in the dangerous area, he'll whip it in with pace so you can attack it. And his left foot is unbelievable, whether it's from a cross, whether it's from a free kick, a dead ball, whether it's from a shot on goal, whether it's from a corner. He is as good as anyone in the world with his left foot. And if Italy could just play him and put him in a position where he can use that left foot, then he's a huge weapon.
DiMarco's Roots and Background
00:02:02
Speaker
And he showed that in these two games.
00:02:05
Speaker
One would almost say that his left foot is a cheat code. Someone would once say... Yeah, well, it's true. I mean, this is what I saw. I mean, it wasn't hyperbole because I've seen him do this exactly like you said. I mean, my first thing with him was during the 18-19 season when he was on loan at Parma and he scored an absolute screamer against Inter at the San Siro to beat Inter.
00:02:30
Speaker
That's when I was like, okay, hang on, what have we got here? And then, of course, he got injured after that, and he came back after the midway point of the Serie A season and didn't exactly make much fuss at Palma, but we are talking about someone who
00:02:47
Speaker
is born in Milan. He's from Calvairata, it's a quarter in Milan. And his parents have a otto fruta in Porta Romana, which is a fresh fruit and vegetable shop.
The Importance of Local Talent
00:03:04
Speaker
And he's got his younger brother Christian, who's also a football player. This kid came up through, he's an interista through and through. Grew up going to the Corvanno, grew up watching inter.
00:03:15
Speaker
grew up playing in every level acting, but as just like his brother. And he's also from Milan. Now, those of you who are listening to this, you say, well, wasn't Christian, wasn't Biragi from Milan? Well, technically not. He's from Cernusco Sol Navilio, which is about 11 kilometres northeast of Milan, or it's part of metropolitan city of Milan, but not really the city of Milan, like
00:03:39
Speaker
And this is something that I believe is good for every club, the same way that Roma has always has, the captain of Roma has to be a Roman guy. I think this is good for Inter and for Milan to have. I mean, Maldini was born and bred in Milan. I think this is good to have players of high quality who are from the city.
DiMarco's Career Journey
00:04:01
Speaker
I think the fans can identify with and also it's a bridge between the fans everywhere and the squad.
00:04:08
Speaker
But if we're talking about him as as a player himself, I mean, like I said, a part of my went really, really well, or that goal. And then he was injured and he didn't do so well. And then, you know, he was sent to.
00:04:21
Speaker
to, he returned to Inter and Antonio Conte, didn't really believe in him as much. He preferred Cristiano Biragi, which I was a vocal opponent of, because Cristiano Biragi is not my favorite player in the world. And I'm really disappointed because Cristiano Biragi was a player who I actually really wanted to do well at Inter, but he's just not simply not good enough.
00:04:45
Speaker
Then something happens and then he sent to on the 31st of January 2020, he sent to Verona on a loan with an option to buy. And that's when Ivan Joric gets his hands
Strengths and Versatility
00:04:59
Speaker
on him. That's when the change in transformation comes. That's when you start to see the player, the development that really, really surprised me and everyone else. And I started taking note and I watched pretty much every single game of Verona because of Joric and him.
00:05:13
Speaker
um and and of course the 2021 season when Inter win this correcto he scores five goals one more one more beautiful than the other in the Serie A and it's and i'm really thinking well unless you know Verona you you have to bring this guy back because he's an Interista for all the reasons i mentioned and it is that that's the thing he's not a very tall player he's 176 centimeters tall he's not very good in the year so 175 he's not very good in he's not very
00:05:42
Speaker
But what he can do, he's decent in short bursts and sprinting, but what he is good at is that left foot. And it's everything from free kicks, long shots, crosses, hard, low, and overlaps to provide those crosses. If you provide him with the right players and the right environment around him, he can really, really hurt
Areas for Improvement
00:06:07
Speaker
you.
00:06:07
Speaker
You can really do a job for you and hurt your opponents. I'm a big fan of this guy. What does he need to improve on?
00:06:18
Speaker
He needs to improve on his positioning without a doubt. He needs to improve on his positioning because he can still get caught out of it. We've seen it time and time again. Understanding and greed of the game of when to drop and when to push up. That's still something he needs to work on. He can improve on also if they can get him to be a little bit more physical. Maybe obviously they can't teach him how to be good in the air, but he can improve that as well. And also the physical aspects.
00:06:45
Speaker
I was impressed with how he battled in these two games. I thought he showed a good mentality. Yeah, that's mentality, but I'm talking about the actual physical attributes.
Strategic Positioning Challenges
00:06:57
Speaker
Sometimes he runs out of gas in games, and it's as if he's so tired he can barely walk. The only thing that I thought that he...
00:07:12
Speaker
the negative in these two games with him is he had, and I've seen it a few times for Inter as well, he had a few bad clearances where just sloppy clearances where he just put it into the center of the field and allowed the opposition to have, you know, counters. Yeah, because he gets stressed. He doesn't have the experience yet. But I think, I mean, these are things that you can adapt. He's never going to be a world class, you know, aerial, you know, good in the air. He's never going to be world class in the air. But
00:07:39
Speaker
So which is also why Simonin Zaghi needs to stop playing him as a left centre back. That's something that Ivan Joric did to sometimes when teams used to block the wing and he would want him to have somewhat centrally have him run forwards and provide crosses and teams were prepared for that. But he has to play, he's a wing back, he's a left wing back and that's his position and that's where he should be played. And I hope that Simonin Zaghi watched these two games and saw that.
00:08:09
Speaker
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