Marco Verratti on goalscoring: “Messi said, promise me that tomorrow you’ll shoot and score.”
In his interview in today’s L’Équipe, Marco Verratti notably spoke about his lack of goals throughout his career, and how teammate Lionel Messi was in part behind his surprise double against Reims last month.
In 2014, you told L’Équipe that you were “a bit strange” to explain why you have a good shot but don’t use it. Is that still the case?
I don’t think so, no. It’s true that it’s a flaw I have. But it’s also linked to the way I think of football, which means that I prefer passing to shooting. Choosing between passing and shooting depends on the situation. I know I have to improve in that aspect.
Before you tried your luck against Brest at the Parc des Princes in January, do you know when your last shot for PSG had been?
No.
Against Brest, in August.
Ah yes. I thought it would have been even longer ago. [Smiles and watches the video of the shot] I’m shooting by default, there [laughs]. It’s an area of my game that I have to improve. I could tell myself that I need to improve my stats a bit and have someone else run in my place. But I would never do that. I would feel too bad.
Can you shoot from 25 metres?
Yes. The day before my two goals against Reims [on January 23] Messi told me, “promise me that tomorrow you’ll shoot and score”. He said that to me because I once shot and scored in training. So I shot, and I scored. Yes, I know how to shoot. But that’s the way I am. What do you want, we all have our flaws.