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  • "I felt sorry for cibo last night- yes he made a few mistakes but he was given no time to redeem himself unlike Risser, time after time he gave the ball away or got beat in the tackle but was still allowed to stay on the pitch.

    I was pretty much stood in the dug out last night and it was one of my most enjoyable nights at a football match purely because i got the chance to hear di canio and what goes on, he is a perfectionist and the he demands that back from his players, also the respect the players have for him is quite amazing, no one back chats him, they all listen and they even ask for permission to go and have a shower after being substituted, fair play to cibo when he got subbed, yes he was very upset but he showed no dissent what so ever and I hope he recovers to be a squad member this year but with the form of mcceverly last night that's all he will be, him and Roberts were just as good as Ritchie and caddis at any point last season.

    Very interesting night and I can't wait for forest rovers and hopefully get somewhere near the dugout as standing near paolo is worth the admission money alone ;)"
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SWINDON TOWN: Selection headache for Di Canio

6:00am Thursday 19th July 2012 in Sport By Sam Morshead

Swindon Town boss Paolo Di Canio Swindon Town boss Paolo Di Canio

PAOLO Di Canio currently sees himself choosing his first starting XI of the new season from a pool of 14 players, following the 6-1 win at Weston-super-Mare last night.

The Swindon manager once again made several changes to his side over the course of the 90 minutes at the Woodspring Stadium, with Matt Ritchie, Andy Williams, James Collins, Raffa De Vita and Paul Benson getting the goals which saw off the Weston challenge.

However, Di Canio revealed after the game that his starting line-up for the fixture, plus a handful of players who came on during the second period, are the individuals he sees as integral to his plans at present.

“I played that starting XI not because they would be in the starting XI for the first official game but obviously most of them are in my mind for the starting XI,” he said.

“We have to be honest, we have 24 at the moment but thinking about the starting XI there are two, three, four players (from the second half team) that deserve to start from the kick-off.

“At the moment we have 14 players that deserve to play in the starting XI. I hope I can have in the next few weeks maybe 17 that deserve to play in the starting XI.

“At the moment I have maybe 14, maximum 15.”

One player who may well not be part of that group is left-back Alessandro Cibocchi, after the Italian was substituted just 17 minutes after coming on as a half-time replacement at Weston.

Di Canio was scathing in his criticism of Cibocchi’s mental preparation for the match, but he said the defender still has the ability to force his way into his plans for the assault on League One.

“In the way he approached the game it was absolutely rubbish. I told him ‘go out’ because we are not on the beach, we are here to play football and behave as a professional,” said Di Canio.

“I understand somebody can have a problem but in the way he approached the game it was an absolute disaster mentally and in one minute he made something that one player should not do in a year – the mistake, three in a row in a very rubbish way.

“He knows me, it’s better if he sees that because there are other players who deserve to play and I don’t give any more gifts to anyone.

“I think he is a player who can stay in the group of the team in League One but it’s obvious now I will take my decision because he is a professional, when we train he trains hard, he doesn’t moan, he knows how to behave but there is the main part that is the game that gives me the information.

“Fortunately we have 25 days to go so we can recover from the mistakes we made in terms of approach, mentally or physically or tactically.”

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