New Charlotte FC coach Christian Lattanzio strikes a contrast with his predecessor
Christian Lattanzio received a text message Wednesday from Fabio Capello, his former boss, a Champions League winner and two-time La Liga champ.
The message congratulated Lattanzio but also delivered a lesson.
“(Capello said) you have to put your own philosophy into what you do, it’s good to listen to everyone but at the end you have to have your own philosophy,” Lattanzio recounted.
“I think I have my own philosophy. … Hopefully, you’ll see it on the pitch in the next few weeks.”
Charlotte FC’s interim coach spoke to the media Thursday, nine days after the team fired former head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez and promoted the 50-year-old Lattanzio in his place. In his first press conference since the change, the coach reaffirmed his commitment to the club and its players.
He also noted that while the base of his system would be similar to Ramirez’s, there would be some adjustments ahead of Saturday’s match against the New York Red Bulls.
“Every coach has got his own way of working,” he said. “Every coach has got his own way of seeing the game. Even though we may see the game similarly in a tactical way … there are always some details that are going to be different.”
He keyed in on his team’s play inside the boxes, calling for a more determined, focused and aggressive attack on the offensive goal and a more compact defense on the opposite end.
Lattanzio downplayed comments from captain Christian Fuchs on Tuesday that there were “fractures” between the players and the coaching staff during Ramirez’s tenure.
He said that there have always been situations with unhappy players on every team he’s been on and that nothing he saw with Charlotte looked out of the ordinary.
“I didn’t see things so blatant or that created so much fracture,” he said. “What I saw on the pitch was that everybody was always giving 100 percent. That’s why I really liked this group of players.”
Lattanzio met with most of the team one-on-one after being named interim coach. He declined to specify the contents of those meetings but noted that the process of creating a team required time, patience and goodwill.
Fuchs praised Lattanzio’s approach to development, saying that the coach put the player at the “center of everything.”
Lattanzio echoed that sentiment in his comments.
“For me what comes first is the person, then the player,” he said. ”Therefore I have to make sure the person is fine … for some players it’s harder and that has to be understood and respected.”
He added that he did not have many meetings with higher-ups in the organization, saying that he stays “very much on the ground” and focuses on his job on the pitch: Serving the players and helping them achieve their potential.
Team owner David Tepper, Sporting Director Zoran Krneta and Director of Player Personnel Bobby Belair were all in attendance Tuesday for Lattanzio’s first practice as head coach.
Lattanzio said he will be open to all his players. That comment came in sharp contrast to a key criticism Fuchs had about Ramirez, which indicated the coach was unreceptive and that his door was often shut to players.
“They can always come to me and discuss anything that they want,” he said. “I would like them to think that I am there for them and I am there to cover their back and to help them in any way I can.”
The coach credited much of his knowledge to the managers he’s worked with. Lattanzio and now-Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira worked together from 2013 to 2020, on Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad to New York City FC to OGC Nice.
Lattanzio also worked with the aforementioned Capello with the English national team and Roberto Mancini with Manchester City. He said it was a “great experience” and an “honor and privilege” to work and learn from them.
“You learn a lot because there are the biggest names in the game,” Lattanzio said. “The knowledge of football ... of how to manage what goes around the team, how to manage players, how to create coaching session details ... it was a great experience for me.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 5:02 PM.
