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In any debate about the best club side of all-time, Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan side of the late 80s and early 90s are sure of a mention. Boasting a glittering array of the world’s greatest players including Franco Baresi, Paulo Maldini, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten the Milanese giants were the last side to win two successive European Cups(‘89 and 1990).
Sacchi, the former Italy head coach who until recently was the federation's Technical Co-ordinator, speaks proudly about this chapter of his career claiming the squad were ‘the closest group to perfection’ that he ever worked with.
The Italian refutes the idea that his Milan team of ‘89 was a team of individual superstar “dribbling players” insisting the success was built around the effort to become a “movement team” one which both attacked and defended with organisation, harmony and understanding.
Sacchi holds up that side as a perfect model of the principles behind the “Co-ordinazione” [co-ordination] a team of players that embodied his definition of Total football. For Sacchi “if you’re far away from your team mates, you’re not a team” stressing his preference for compactness and togetherness when they didn’t have the ball– “ the defensive line to be no more than 25 metres away from attacking line” - and for support play and multiple attacking options when in possession.
The way in which Sacchi got the Rossoneri to understand the principles of his total football concept was simple: he designed practices to test and stretch players. The principle was to numerically disadvantage one team, repeating the exercise to give the players the opportunity to solve the problem of playing outnumbered.
GK
Defending sessions would start 11 v 5 in favour of the attackers, progress to 11 v 8 and finally finishing in the 11 V 11 context.
Sacchi's approach:
END ZONE
9 v 6 OVERLOAD however, if 6 regain possession, they attack 6v9 and have 6 seconds to score.
POINT SYSTEM: 1 point if red team make 10 passes or 1 point if they can get movement and support to work the ball into the END ZONE. 2 goals if 6 players can counter and score in less than 6 seconds.
One of the key ingredients Sacchi cites for the success of his Milan side was the “unbelievable intelligence” of midfielder, Carlo Ancellotti. Despite his lack of pace, Sacchi said that Real Madrid’s Head Coach was key to everything the team did. The importance he places on developing intelligent footballers is evident throughout the discussion.
Writing about Sacchi’s coaching methodology in his book, Ancelotti said: “as many times as possible we would work in game-realistic situations”. There was mutual affection between the pair, with Ancelotti claiming he owes much of his football education to the time he spent with Sacchi, admitting he still adopts many of the lessons and approaches when preparing the Madrid giants.
Italian Football Federation
In August 2011, following Italy’s poor showing at South Africa 2010, Sacchi was appointed to overhaul Italy’s International youth teams. Based at Coverciano, the National Italian Football Centre in Florence, Sacchi inherited a development system which locked young players into specific positions and admitted that defensive mastery was prioritised above all else.
More worryingly he found a fractured player pathway: “each National group had a different style and system”. Resultantly, the 68 year-old made significant changes to the coaching staff, retaining only one member of the group he inherited, and worked to develop a more unified approach with greater consistency in message and overall vision: “when you coach a National team you are not an U16s coach, you are a coach of Italy”.
Above: Sacchi relaxes at Coverciano, the National Italian Football Centre in Florence
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