Roberto Sorrentino (Naples, 14 August 1955) is an Italian football coach and former footballer, who played as a goalkeeper.
Roberto Sorrentinohistoric former goalkeeper of Cagliari, comments on the rossoblù’s season and focuses on the very difficult match that this afternoon will pit Davide Nicola’s boys against Gasperini’s sparkling Atalanta.
Roberto, how do you rate Cagliari’s season a few days before the turning point of Serie A?
“The Sardinian championship faithfully reflects the path that the team must take. Let’s leave aside the last defeat against Fiorentina, a match in which I saw a lively and quite active Cagliari who probably wouldn’t have deserved to bring home zero points. Now there will be the match against Atalanta, for which in this period – as is also happening to Fiorentina – everything is more or less going right. Now the Bergamo players are going full speed, so the advice I feel like giving to my friend Davide Nicola is that the important thing this afternoon will be not to lose. It would be essential to bring home a positive result to confidently continue the journey in a championship which, compared to previous years, has leveled up further.”
If you were Nicola, would you prudently wait for Atalanta and then hit them on the counterattack with the attacking speedsters or, on the contrary, would you try to attack the Orobic players, preventing them from playing the ball calmly?
“Considering the peculiar characteristics of Gasperini’s teams, I believe that the Dea could suffer from the aggressiveness and resourcefulness of Cagliari. For this reason I would apply high pressure and take away the pace and breathing space of the Nerazzurri midfielders. But it will be necessary for all eleven rossoblù to perform one hundred percent and move in unison and harmoniously. In any case, offensive pressing seems to me to be the best solution: if you make Atalanta think freely you risk ending up in a mental hospital.
For goodness sake, it is true that potentially leaving space and field for Lookman it would be a huge risk, given that the boy is a real fury these days. But then again the blanket is short: the risk must be accepted and calculated, at most making sure to constantly double on the Nigerian. What is certain is that if you just defend yourself you expose yourself to the all-out football of Atalanta, who always knows how to find a solution to hurt you. In my opinion it would be suicide. Furthermore, this sport is strange: if by chance Cagliari were to take the lead, the match could change radically. However, if Atalanta were to score first it would become particularly difficult for the islanders to come back against such an opponent.”
Roberto Sorrentino’s Career:
After two years spent in the Napoli youth team, he played for Nocerina, Paganese and a few years for Catania (from 1979 to 1984) of which he was captain and driving force in their promotion to Serie A.
It started in Serie C1 with the Etna team who, coached by Lino De Petrillothey reached Serie B at the end of the 1979-1980 Serie C1 championship; after two years in Serie B, with 13th and 9th places obtained, the team obtained promotion to Serie A in the 1982-1983 championship after the play-offs. In these, Catania beat Como 1-0 and drew 0-0 with Cremonese.
He then moved to Cagliari in Serie B and finally to Bologna in the top flight.
Overall he has 41 appearances in Serie A and 163 in Serie B.
Having concluded his career as a footballer, he dedicated himself to that of a coach, reaching the Serie C1 with Palazzolo and the Serie C2 with Fasano and Frosinone, and worked as a goalkeeper coach and youth coach at Juventus and Turin.
After several years in Serie D, he continued his coaching career with Luco Canistro after taking over from Angelo Pierleoni on the second day of the 2010-2011 championship, being sacked after the sixth day of return.
On 28 July 2013 he became the manager of the technical area of Ragusa, then on the following 1 November he became the coach of the team following the dismissal of Simone Righetti.
Helped by his deputy Salvatore Utro, Sorrentino leaves the team after two matches responding to the call of Teuta, a team from the Albanian top flight.
On 30 May 2018 he was announced as coach and sporting director of Argentina’s Arma di Taggia, in Serie D.
In 2019 he began coaching Cervo FC in the Second Category, where his son would later join him as a striker.
On 25 June 2020 he was announced as the new coach of FC Torinese in Promotion while his son will be the technical director.
On 6 June 2022 he was made official as the new coach of Chieri, a Serie D club presided over by his son Stefano.
In the 2022-2023 season he achieved a quiet salvation by placing twelfth.
In the summer of 2024 he reached an agreement with Pro Novara, a team registered in the Excellence tournament.
An adventure which however ends after just four games and with the team still stuck with zero points in the standings.
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