Sepulveda
Notts County's younger cousins' fan
Today I read an interview of Francesco "Ciccio" Caputo (very decent kind of "Championship striker" who probably had his best 2 years while under De Zerbi at Sassuolo.) One line in particular reminded me of something I'd already thought about some time ago. Here's the passage I'm talking about:
In my head there's more or less this table (with examples from Italian coaches/managers because I know them better.) It's most likely absolute bullshit but it works for me personally as a basic and generic classification. Lots of young coaches fall into RDZ's category because of Guardiola's influence.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, this style of unyielding management - like any other - has its pros and cons, and it usually works best with teams that are either a) young, b) without many champions (i.e. players with top-club experience who could still play in top teams), or c) top teams in disgrace who need rebuilding and confidence to climb back up. This is simply because experienced top players are obviously much more confident in their own individual ability and, especially in midfield and attack, often don't appreciate having more freedom taken from them than they're used to.
What I'm getting at is that, without having to become a manager (supervisor) like Allegri or Ancelotti, De Zerbi will still need to learn to become more elastic and adaptable as a coach if he wants to thrive in different environments or even in the evolved forms of the same environment. Guardiola himself has strayed from his original footballing ideas in order to survive at City, learning from his time at Bayern when he had lots of trouble trying to impose them. RDZ at the moment might seem a bit too stubborn and hot-headed for that but he has time, he's young and also smart so I'm hopeful he'll evolve instead of stagnating like Conte.
And what they're similar in is their very hands-on approach to the team and everything that happens on the pitch, besides also their need for control and their complete obsession with football. They are obviously different people with their own personalities and very different ideas of how football should be played on the pitch, but they both (as also lots of other managers do) put their footballing systems above the players and are quite dogmatic with it.
In my head there's more or less this table (with examples from Italian coaches/managers because I know them better.) It's most likely absolute bullshit but it works for me personally as a basic and generic classification. Lots of young coaches fall into RDZ's category because of Guardiola's influence.
| Player-based, man-manager | System-based, controlling coach | |
| Reactive, pragmatic | Allegri | Conte |
| Proactive, idealistic | Mancini | De Zerbi |
As I mentioned in a previous comment, this style of unyielding management - like any other - has its pros and cons, and it usually works best with teams that are either a) young, b) without many champions (i.e. players with top-club experience who could still play in top teams), or c) top teams in disgrace who need rebuilding and confidence to climb back up. This is simply because experienced top players are obviously much more confident in their own individual ability and, especially in midfield and attack, often don't appreciate having more freedom taken from them than they're used to.
What I'm getting at is that, without having to become a manager (supervisor) like Allegri or Ancelotti, De Zerbi will still need to learn to become more elastic and adaptable as a coach if he wants to thrive in different environments or even in the evolved forms of the same environment. Guardiola himself has strayed from his original footballing ideas in order to survive at City, learning from his time at Bayern when he had lots of trouble trying to impose them. RDZ at the moment might seem a bit too stubborn and hot-headed for that but he has time, he's young and also smart so I'm hopeful he'll evolve instead of stagnating like Conte.
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