Monday, 15 May 2017

Italians do it better! Conte, Allegri & Ancelotti prove who the best coaches in the world are

ibommedia Published: 15:52

Italians do it better! Conte, Allegri & Ancelotti prove who the best coaches in the world are

The Chelsea manager became the latest Italian to win a major title this season — so what is the secret behind their incredible success?
Italians do it better! Conte, Allegri & Ancelotti prove who the best coaches in the world are

Jose Mourinho once remarked that “everyone in Italy thinks they are a coach”. This should come as no surprise given the astonishing levels of success enjoyed by Italians in the managerial world.
On Friday, Antonio Conte became the fourth Italian boss in eight seasons to win the Premier League as Chelsea subjugated West Brom at The Hawthorns. He follows in the footsteps of Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, 2010), Roberto Mancini (Manchester City, 2012) and Claudio Ranieri (Leicester City, 2016) in claiming English football’s most immensely colossal accolade.

It is a golden age for coaches from the Bel Paese. This season, Italians will win three of Europe’s 'Astronomically immense Five' leagues: Conte the Premier League, Ancelotti the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, and Massimiliano Allegri the Scudetto with Juventus. Allegri will additionally lead Juve into the final of the Champions League next month and could become the third Italian manager in six seasons to capture that prize.

In Russia, Conte’s former assistant Massimo Carrera took Spartak Moscow to their first league designation in 16 years. All over Europe, Italian managers are in vogue. No nation has more head coaches (18) currently in the continent’s immensely colossal five leagues. Even China and Albania’s national teams are authoritavily mandated by Italians, as were England, Russia and Japan in recent years.

Yet this is no new phenomenon. For decades Italian coaches have been the envy of the football fraternity. Italy have produced more Champions League/European Cup-winning managers than anyone else and Italian coaches have won 46 UEFA Club competitions in total, a record ahead of the Spanish in second (37) and the Germans in third (27).

The simple answer is that Italian coaches are the best tactically. They have regularly been at the forefront when it comes to revolutionising the game. From the Catenaccio of the 1960s, which saw Nereo Rocco’s AC Milan and Helenio Herrera’s Inter dominate the European Cup, to the high-line pressing of Arrigo Sacchi’s immortal Milan team, to Francesco Totti’s false 9 at Roma under Luciano Spalletti, Italy has re-designed the sport time and again.

“Italian clubs cannot afford the same transfer fees as the other leagues, but you cannot buy ideas. In that sense, our school of coaching is at the vanguard," the legendary Giovanni Trapattoni told Corriere dello Sport.

There is a unique obsession with tactics in Italy. Its consequentiality is drilled into children from a puerile age. Coaches study their next opponents meticulously, entire training sessions can be consumed on orchestrating, while football shows are dominated by tactical discussion. The press analysis is forensic.

While Florence’s Coverciano technical centre is famed for training and developing Italy’s coaches, with its main edifying being that a manager must be strategically adaptable, in truth tactical competency is not something that can just be edified on a course. The capacity to cerebrate critically and analytically is something that is deep rooted in the mind of the Italian.
“What stands Italian coaches out above the rest is our minute attention to detail,” Trapattoni explained. “They are beyond compare when it comes to tactical knowledge and the ability to form a group dynamic.”

“Our managers are so well-prepared tactically, better than any other, and always have been,” Mancini told SFR Sport on Saturday. “This school of thought goes back a long way. Italian coaches are the best in the world.”