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@july
I want to talk about Carlo Ancelotti I was recalling a conversation I had about Milan with @gilles talking about the Golden Age of Milan, that Ancelotti coached: Kaka, Rui Costa, Maldini, Nesta, Seedorf, Gattuso, Pirlo, Cafu. That Milan. That was truly a wonderful Milan. Seedorf is a 10, Pirlo is a weird 10, and Rui Costa and Kaka are of course 10s, but of a different style. And Ancelotti somehow figures out a way to combine all of them together on a pitch and succeed. Some accuse him as being tactic-less. In this modern age of Football, the extrapolation of The Cruijffian Totaalvoetbal taken to its natural extreme -- through the Tiki Taka of Barça Guardiola, Gegenpressing of Jürgen Klopp, the new Brighton De Zerbi, Arteta's Arsenal, the Guardiola disciple. Even Unai Emery's new Aston Villa does a lot of positional play, and the new Bayern Guardiola / Man City Guardiola -- it feels like positional play is that's all there is these days. And then you realize, Ancelotti won the UCL, again??
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I think similar to this was Sir Alex Ferguson. Many forget the different incarnations of Man Utd. What most people don't know is before Sir Alex Ferguson was at Aberdeen, beat the Rangers / Celtics deadlock and Aberdeen won the league (for the first time in forever at the time) and somehow went on to Europe and found success. One of the things Sir Alex was known for was his man management. There are a only a few coaches left, I'd say that rely purely on getting the best out of their players. Folks like Guardiola, Arteta, and De Zerbi, (and now it seems Arne Slot of Liverpool as well) are all bought into this general thesis of using your players like pawns -- its all half spaces, and everyone has roles to play. One of the things, in a weird way that I see with Sir Alex, and also to a larger extent with Ancelotti, is in a way more freedom for the players to express themselves.
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Ancelotti has an amazing ability to still command a certain level of authority, but also understand that he needs to deal with players individually and motivate them, take care of them as a human, not just as football player that fits into a machine (*cough* looking at you José *cough*) so many players report that when Ancelotti leaves they are sad. Kaka even said that his best playing days were with Ancelotti because he let him free to play his own football. It's so interesting and so contrasting and philosophically and ideologically diametrically opposed to this philosophy of strict positional play / cat and mouse game that is going on with how to press, how to break the low block against opposing teams that like to sit back, how to play De Zerbi style Brighton Counter-attacks, its an arms race constantly of trying to outwit your opponent And then hilariously, here is Ancelotti going out there pretty much telling Jude Bellingham to play his best. And they win the UCL. What?
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People aren't going to remember his tactics, that's for sure. I wouldn't say he doesn't play "group" football. What I mean by that, is he enables players and their individual freedom to shine. What happens is often the "group" looks a bit dead, because they aren't necessarily working together, just going off of instinct. So watching TV, it doesn't look good. I don't really remember any of the tactics that Sir Alex threw at Wenger, being really great. What I do remember is individual brilliance from the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo. I do remember Man Utd just being unbeatable for most of my childhood and adolescence. Of course Arsenal had their Wenger moments (and I have massive respect for Wenger, he changed the game) but I really don't think I remember any of Sir Alex's. tactics, I really don't.
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At the end of the day, the players remember their manager when looking back on their careers, I think a lot of players (or at least most of the players, looking at you Roy Keane) loved playing for Sir Alex, and similarly for Ancelotti. Look at vNistelrooy, and the Class of '92 -- I mean what a batch of players, of course it is easy to look at the players that came through the ranks at the time (Beckham, Butt, the Neville brothers, Giggsy, Scholes) unbelievable level talent. Who gave them a chance? Sir Alex. Similarly I think Ancelotti does the same. It's kind of like if you go to work, and you like working with your team and your boss is actually fun to work with, and you are all talented, it's sort of easy to get work done. I think it isn't a surprise or an accident that many players that are individually brilliant have had their best moments of their careers with Ancelotti.
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So theoretically, Ancelotti brings out the best of individuals (where Guardiola brings out the best of his system and the best of his group of players for example working together as a team) -- I don't think one is better than the other, just different approaches. Before I go, I do want to throw a wrench in my own argument -- and that's "Relationism". There's a great article about it, which I'll put here: Fundamentally, it is philosophically the opposite of positional play and it has started to see success in Brazil under Fernando Diniz, and Henrik Rydström and Malmö FF in Sweden. They are playing a completely different brand of football, and in a weird way it is structured, but it is much more open and local. I miss the Trequartista (damn you positional play for killing the Juan Roman Riqueleme's of the world - I want them back) and if anything I think Relationism is a tilt back towards a different kind of football https://medium.com/@stirlingj1982/what-is-relationism-c98d6233d9c2
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I digress. My point is, especially with the advent of YouTube and information traveling faster than ever before, video rooms, analysis etc etc to understand football and break down football ever than before. This has created a natural evolution and explosion of interest into football tactics and the rise of positional play. Even in this world, one of the most decorated managers of all time is Carlo Ancelotti, a purist man management manager that has just done so well at what is good at -- he is literally the best in the world at what he does. And the longevity speaks for itself, a career that spans many decades now. In a way, Sir Alex and Carlo Ancelotti - I think this path of man management has a chance at longevity because football evolves a lot quicker than humans do, and humans don't change as fast as football tactics too. Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk on Carlo Ancelotti
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interesting point this raises for me is klopp was a strange hybrid of both. his players adopted one of the craziest work ethics i've ever seen and literally ran their bodies into dust because of his man management - yet he was insistent on that press and once loosened he immediately had trouble listening to carlo talk you can just feel the presence radiating off him
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