Gasperini: "A red card for Wesley? Football is heading in the wrong direction"

Gian Piero Gasperini criticised the trend of diving after Wesley’s sending-off, saying he had already noted there was no point in dwelling on it but that Como seem to thrive on these kinds of situations. He described the incident as significant, likening it to the one that led to the draw, and warned there had been too many glaring incidents to ignore.

Como, he added, are good at breaking through our defence; while we have generally defended well, we were not up to the task on this occasion. Malen’s chance at 1-1, Gasperini said, could have put us back in front. On Malen and the wider performance, he argued that frequent clear-cut situations for the forward signal the team is doing well.

The side played its game: they tracked the goalkeeper’s long balls well in the first half and even better in the second, although Como brought on key players. The real difficulty, he felt, only arose once we had the numerical advantage.

gasperini, wesley, red card, diving, como, malen, defence, goalkeeper, long balls, numerical advantage