DOMINATING Arrigo Sacchi Tactic

Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga, the year is 2036. The season ended and after 38 matches, Bayer Leverkusen sits at the top of the table. 112 goals were scored and 47 were conceded.

The UEFA Champions League, the year is still 2036. After many matches, one team took the trophy home. That team was Bayer Leverkusen.

I know that as the rest of the 17 teams in the Bundesliga and AC Milan, you are wondering how it’s possible.

There is one answer to the question.

Arrigo Sacchi is an Italian former professional football manager, best known for having twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success.

But much like Bayer Leverkusen in my save, he looked for that success for many years.

He started his career managing his local club, Baracca Lugo. Arrigo Sacchi stated that "I was twenty-six, my goalkeeper was thirty-nine and my centre-forward was thirty-two. I had to win them over."

He next coached at Bellaria before joining Cesena as a youth team coach.

He then took over at Rimini who were playing in the Serie C1, and almost led them to a title.

Years passed and it seemed like he couldn’t make it work, he couldn’t find any real success.

But then, came Parma.

In 1985, Parma weren’t the club we know nowadays. They were a club languishing in the Serie C1 of Italian football, trying to get promoted to Serie B.

And once Arrigo Sacchi joined them, things changed. He led Parma to promotion in his first season, and in the following season took them to 3 points of promotion to Serie A.

A greater importance to his time at Parma, however, had the team's performance in the Coppa Italia where they beat AC Milan 1–0 in the group stages, and beat them again 1–0 on aggregate in the first knockout round.

And this was enough to attract the interest of AC Milan’s club owner Silvio Berlusconi, who promptly appointed Sacchi as manager.

Before we delved deeper into the Italian manager’s time at AC Milan, we need to understand his philosophy and why, maybe, it was so hard for him to find success.

Arrigo Sacchi grew up knowing about attacking teams like Budapest Honved, Real Madrid or the Netherlands national football team. Very attacking teams.

However, Italian football was dominated, at that time, by fierce defensive football, with low scoring games. The influence of Helenio Herrera and other defensive managers were still present.

But Arrigo Sacchi was about to challenge it all. And AC Milan was the perfect club to do it with.

Silvio Berlusconi’s club was still developing, looking to find a much-needed success.

Even at a club like AC Milan, Arrigo Sacchi faced problems of credibility. The press questioning his appointment. They claimed that Arrigo Sacchi never played football at a high level, so how could he bring success to AC Milan?

To which the manager replied with his iconic line - "I never realised that in order to become a jockey you have to have been a horse first."

Arrigo Sacchi proved everyone wrong and won the league title in his debut season, following it up with a Supercoppa Italiana in 1988.

He also managed to win two back-to-back European Cups with the Italian club – in 1989 and 1990.

After a few other trophies won, Arrigo Sacchi left AC Milan to manage the Italian national football team in 1991.

But his legacy remained at AC Milan. And through his work, he managed to challenge and change the Italian football mentality at that time.

How can one challenge a defensive, catenaccio team. By attacking it constantly, of course. However, this was not the only approach, but just a tool in Arrigo Sacchi’s arsenal at AC Milan.

Using the players at his disposal, iconic players no less, he setup a 4-4-2 formation. Of course, the concept of sweeper keeper was non-existent at that time, however, since we have it, let’s use it.

The back four was setup in a way to take advantage of the players’ abilities and to also protect the goal.

Two wing backs, one on support on the right side and one on attack on the left one. Both are asked to stay wider, to stretch the pitch when the team is in possession, make it hard for the opposition to press effectively.

The left-sided one is also asked to cross more often.

One ball playing defender and one central defender on defend make up the defensive line.

In midfield is where it all happens for this tactical setup. And it’s not only the formation.

Two wingers, one on attack and one on support. This is to complement the wing backs on each flank.

The right-sided winger is asked to cut inside with the ball and mark tighter. While the left-sided one to mark tighter.

The wingers are required to go up the field in possession, challenging the opposition in the final third. By cutting inside, the right-sided one should be able to disrupt any low block, rigid setup.

Also, the left-sided wing back being on attack and going up naturally creates an overload on the left side of the attack, making it hard for the opposition to maintain their defensive shape intact.

One central midfielder and one deep lying playmaker on support make up the midfield of the team.

There are no instructions for the central midfielder, so the traits of each player used in this position will dictate how they play.

The deep lying playmaker is thought to be team’s passing hub and the first player defending any opposition counterattacks.

And the strikers are a deep lying forward and an advanced forward. The deep lying forward’s objective is to disrupt the opposition’s defensive shape further, by coming deep to aid the passing game.

While the advanced forward pushes up the field, moving into channels.

With this kind of setup and Arrigo Sacchi’s approach on the game, only one mentality would work – attacking.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Standard passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And work the ball into the box.

With this setup, the team looks to pass the ball fast and in a direct fashion, but when it reaches the opposition’s box, it works the ball into the box, creating overloads and creating the best chance of scoring.

Essentially, beating the opposition at their own game, which at that time was catenaccio – passively defending their box in numbers.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the defence through short kicks.

And out of possession, a mid block and a much higher defensive line. This is why I said earlier that the midfield is where all happens for this tactic.

Arrigo Sacchi coached his team to bring the lines no further than 25 meters off each other. Crowding the midfield, making it very hard for the opposition to play through. Creating a catenaccio setup in the midfield.

With this setup, AC Milan could defend relatively easy, given the players they had in their squad. As the opposition had two options – play out from the back and face AC Milan players in 1v1 battles or play through balls or over the top ones, which ended up with the defenders or the goalkeeper often.

To complement this setup, trigger press is more often, step up more is used and trap outside. Compacting the defensive shape even further.

In my save, the squad is very good, and it may be a factor that helped us to win the league title and the UEFA Champions League trophy.

But it’s not very often a tactic helps a team score more than 100 goals in a season and concede less than 50 goals.

Arrigo Sacchi’s footballing view challenged the established system used at that time and brought him success in the end.

The legacy he created with AC Milan remains to this day and I am sure is going to be analysed and talk about for years to come.