English football taking lessons from Italy's middle class imports

22 August 2009 17:51
We sip our cappuccino reading the paper about Fabio Capello's latest England squad, with players drawn from Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea and Gianfranco Zola's West Ham. The Italian football brain is evidently a highly desirable commodity. What is it about Italians and tactical sophistication? A traditional view has been that the slow pace of the game in Serie A lent itself to chess-like use of space on the field, the laying of tactical traps and the prising open of locked formations. With the physical intensification of Italian football in the last 20 years exacerbated by the extremes of muscularity brought on by illegal doping that is a difficult argument to sustain. There is another explanation. What do Capello, Ancelotti and Zola have in common, beside their nationality? All are middle class. So is Roberto Di Matteo, the West Bromwich Albion manager. English football is determinedly working class and deeply suspicious of education. Italian football does not have this class prejudice. Italians players, coaches, and journalists think about football in a more technical and analytical way. They want to learn; they enjoy learning. And this makes for good coaches. We have exceptions in this country and Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, is one of them, although it is telling that his reputation was formed abroad. Hodgson, a great organiser of teams with a healthy sense of curiosity, has coached in eight different countries and, exceptionally for an Englishman, Italy is among them. On Sunday he tussles once more with one of his sparring partners form his time in charge of Internazionale, as his Fulham side take on Ancelotti's Chelsea. The first time Hodgson came across Ancelotti was when the latter was the assistant of the great Arrigo Sacchi with the Italian national team. Hodgson, having carved out a name for himself in Swedish football, had moved to Switzerland with Neuchâtel Xamax before taking charge of the national side. The two countries had been drawn in a qualifying group for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Hodgson's Swiss drew in Cagliari and beat the Italians in Berne even more impressive when you consider that Italy, inspired by Roberto Baggio, would reach the final, losing to Brazil on penalties. It did not go unnoticed. Sacchi's choice of assistant was clearly astute and Ancelotti was soon a club manager in his own right, taking Reggiana to promotion to Serie A in his first season in charge, aged just 36. In 1996 he was given the chance to manage Parma, Italy's brash nouveau riche club, who freely spent the Parmalat dairy money on Hristo Stoichkov, Zola and Tino Asprilla. Meanwhile, Hodgson's reputation was in the ascendant and Massimo Moratti, the inordinately wealthy oil man, had appointed him as head coach of Internazionale in the autumn of 1995. In the following season, with champions Milan left spiralling down the league after Capello's departure for Real Madrid, Hodgson and Ancelotti would compete with Marcello Lippi's Juventus for the title. With Paul Ince energising midfield, Inter were a strong side and beat Ancelotti's Parma 3-1 at the San Siro, but ultimately Hodgson's team could not sustain the challenge, finishing third. Despite selling Zola to Chelsea, Ancelotti's Parma finished just two points behind Juventus, taking the second Champions League spot. Sacchi's protégé had arrived. "He was always a friendly, personable man," Hodgson said. "We've always had a good relationship but I wouldn't say we were bosom pals. I first met him when he was Sacchi's assistant with Italy and he came and watched us train for a week. Of course you have to rate him highly as a coach. Just look at his CV, the record speaks for itself. He is in the top echelons of coaches and he has made a great start at Chelsea. People seem to have taken to his methods. "I don't think Carlo will have found a great deal of difference in exchanging the San Siro and Milanello for Stamford Bridge and Cobham. They have a very professional approach to their football in Italy and it is the same thing here. I didn't find a vast difference when I left Inter for Blackburn only the attention you get in Italy. "It could feel zoo-like with people turning to look at you or greet you in the streets of Milan. You have to make sure you're always dressed smartly and don't pick your nose in public." Hodgson failed to bring silverware to Inter, losing the final of the 1997 Uefa Cup to Schalke on penalties (Jens Lehmann was the hero for the German club). Ironically, the only time his career stalled was when he returned to England, where he was sacked after Blackburn slipped to the bottom of the league. However, having saved Fulham from relegation two seasons ago and achieved their best finish seventh last season, he has shown that he has the measure of his domestic game. "I don't think there are as many differences between football in Italy and football in England as people make out," he said. "What they have that we don't have is the number of South American players. We don't have quite as many because of passport issues. Inter at one time fielded a team of South Americans. "I think there are myths about Italian football. You have to put the idea that Italy is famed for its defensive football in the same bracket as the idea that in England we play kick and rush. It's exactly the same thing. "I had it when I first went to Sweden. That was their version of English football but you could not find anything further from kick and rush in the Premier League now. And you couldn't find anything further from pure defensive football in Italy. The Milans, the Juventuses, the Inters, the Romas, they've given us a lot of pleasure with the quality of their attacking football." Roman Abramovich evidently agrees with Hodgson. Ancelotti has been brought in to, in Ancelotti's words, give the team a strong "identity". The Chelsea owner craves Champions League success but he wants to do it with style. He's tried Portuguese, Israeli, Brazilian and Dutch coaches, with varying degrees of success. Now he has decided on Italian. That an ambitious club like this has never entertained appointing an English manager speaks of the poverty of our coaching resources: if there were more with the open mind of Hodgson, things would surely be different.

Source: Telegraph