Sport | Football
Birth of an Italian revolution!
For changing a nation's footballing culture Marcello Lippi deserves whatever glory that comes to him in the wake of Italy making it to the final.
- By Naveed Raja, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 July 6, 2006
For changing a nation's footballing culture Marcello Lippi deserves whatever glory that comes to him in the wake of Italy making it to the final.
When most people think of Italian football they think of catenaccio the door bolt and the overly defensive tactics that have characterised Italian teams in the past.
There were exceptions, most notably Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan with the three Dutchmen of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. Lippi's mid-90s Juventus team also played a different brand of football to the traditional Italian way.
But those teams were also just as adept at killing off games and that is what made them so effective.
In contrast Italian national teams have mostly been afflicted by an overly-defensive mindset, which has not done enough to make the best use of the consistently excellent attacking talent the country has produced.
Lippi's Italy have now gone 24 matches unbeaten since he took over from Giovanni Trapattoni after Euro 2004 and they have done it by finally trusting their talents all over the field.
Trusting in the fact that they always produce the very best defenders. Today's rearguard of the likes of Fabio Cannavaro surely the best centre-back in the world are just the latest in a long line of brick walls at the back.
What has changed is, Lippi has recognised that such defensive talent did not need to be mollycoddled and overly protected. They could handle themselves.
So, while a defensive midfielder like Gennaro Gattuso is selected sitting deep, alongside him is Andrea Pirlo. Pirlo's deep deployment is an attacking move as it affords him the space to set the tempo with his wide range of passing. As a tackler he has no place in front of a defence.
Additionally, there is always place for a midfielder to break forward plus, in the fantasist role, Francesco Totti to back up two strikers, who are fed crosses by overlapping full-backs.
Against Germany an extra midfielder was chosen in a 4-2-3-1 formation as a means to attack down the flanks.
By the end, Lippi had Alessandro del Piero, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alberto Gilardino and Francesco Totti on the pitch. He trusted in his team's ability it paid off. A Cup win and we could be witnessing the evolution of Italian football. From the wreckage of the match-fixing scandal, may be born an Italian revolution.
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