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#5 CATENACCIO
‘Catenaccio’ is an Italian word which roughly translates to ‘Chain’ or ‘Door Bolt’. This is a \defensive strategy which originated in the 1950s and 1960s. In the Catenaccio system, four defenders are instructed to mark one static opponent tightly and stay close to the attacker, while a sweeper or ‘Libero’ drifts behind the three defenders. The Libero is mainly responsible for retrieving lose balls, double marking the forwards and initiating counter attacks. Germany's Franz Beckenbauer and the great Italian, late Gaetano Scirea are the classic examples of sweepers.
The flagbearer for this system is Helenio Herrera. His Inter Milan side dominated Italian and European football, securing three Serie A titles and two European Cups in the early 1960s. Herrera’s tactic was sometimes labelled as anti-football. But the Argentine coach had insisted that 'Catenaccio' has been degraded by its imitators.
Herrera’s version actually inspired several positive innovations such as modern attacking full-backs who are directly descended to Inter Milan Left-Back Giacinto Facchetti. There is no denying of the fact that the attacking full-backs in modern football have become an integral part. Facchetti was admired for his pace and aggressiveness upfield. He ended the season as the highest scoring defender in Serie A when he scored 10 goals in 32 games in 1967. The record which remained unbroken for 35 years.
The Italian league and players have long been defined by Herrera's defensive style of play. However, Catenaccio became less popular with time as the best teams started adapting to the ‘zonal marking’ system. Meanwhile, the modern defensive midfielder took the place of the sweeper, a position which was always a midfielder in disguise.
The beginning of the end of Catenaccio era could be traced back to the early 1970s as Inter lost in the European Cup final and AC Milan was thrashed 6-0 by Ajax in European Super Cup Final.
