Rome (AFP)

Andrea Pirlo, a young player, was launched in Serie A by Mircea Lucescu in Brescia.

Twenty-five years later, it was against his Romanian mentor, now at Dynamo Kiev, that the novice coach of Juventus made his first steps in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.

"I have always been convinced that he would become a coach (...) When you have this quality, it is normal to become it," Lucescu told the sports daily Tuttosport, about the player he had launched in May 1995, at just 16 years old.

“I thought so of Andrea, like Diego Simeone, who was one of my players in Pisa. Pirlo had a different personality from + Cholo + (Simeone) but he was just as charismatic and with a lot of character. he never entered the field to do nothing, he was decisive, "said the 75-year-old Romanian coach.

From there to shine immediately as a trainer, in the footsteps of a Pep Guardiola or a Zinédine Zidane?

"It's possible, I wish it," replied the Dynamo Kiev coach, while warning both his ex-student and his club who tried a daring bet with a novice on the bench: "A coach needs at least six months to make his mark on a team. "

- "Need some time" -

Pirlo repeated it again this weekend: his Juventus is still "under construction" when it comes to approaching the Champions League, a competition where the Bianconeri have a lot to be forgiven after their disappointing elimination in the round of 16 against Lyon last season (0-1, 2-1).

The thunderous debut in the league against Sampdoria (3-0), followed two unconvincing draws against AS Rome (2-2) then the promoted Crotone (1-1) on Saturday.

These matches, between recruits who arrived late (Morata, Chiesa), expulsions (Rabiot, Chiesa) and now the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo because of Covid-19, did not really allow to learn much about how will evolve Juve de Pirlo.

"We are a still young team, which needs to work. We need time", pleaded Saturday Pirlo, who has certainly been daring in his choices by establishing young shoots but still struggles to give meaning to his team.

Of the ideas of the "Maestro", we especially know for the moment those he put in black and white in his coaching thesis, validated just before the start of the season.

- Inspired by Cruyff -

The former leader of Juve and AC Milan defended "total and collective football, with eleven players active in the offensive phase as defensive".

And quoted, among the "teams which (l) 'inspired", the "Barcelona of Cruyff and that of Guardiola, Ajax of Van Gaal, Milan of Ancelotti to Juventus of Conte".

The line is clear: Pirlo knows that it is up to him to fulfill the promises of good play too rarely kept last season under the orders of his predecessor Maurizio Sarri.

History to make Juventus take the offensive turn in which Italian football is gradually engaging.

In the footsteps of Gasperini's Atalanta Bergamo, best team on the Peninsula last year in the Champions League (quarter-finals), or of Mancini's Nazionale, back in the international game for two years winning, but above all by seducing with a game based on ball possession and attack.

Seduce and win: the player Pirlo knew how to do, with a World Cup, two Champions Leagues and six Italian championships to his name.

But for the coach, it starts from Tuesday on the European scene, against Dynamo de Lucescu, but also already thinking of the shock against FC Barcelona next week.

© 2020 AFP