Why all Barcelona fans should be grateful to the great Arrigo Sacchi

Pep Guardiola adopted strains from Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan sqaud of the late 80s and early 90s

Tactics

Tactically too, these too sides are greatly similar. Barcelona’s style of pressing the opposition in the rare event that they lose the ball was what Sacchi’s Milan were famed for – the former Parma coach encouraged his players to regain possession aggressively – every player pulling their own weight defensively to exhaust the opposition and control the pace of the game.

But Sacchi has claimed Milan practised different forms of the art at different points in a game, and did not always use the mad rushing that Barcelona’s game shows, whenever they used to lose possession.

“There was partial pressing, where it was more about jockeying; there was total pressing which was more about winning the ball; there was fake pressing, when we pretended to press, but, in fact, used the time to recuperate.”(Inverting the Pyramid)

In addition to this high pressing game, both sides boasted extended attacking options. Barcelona have one way of playing, which is to dominate possession and territory, and pass the opposition to death with quick tiki-taka, one-twos, third man runs, before opening up and blowing their competitors away.

A side could focus on Messi and Villa, only to be undone by any one of Iniesta, Dani Alves or Pedro. There are hardly any direct balls or crosses or long shots in Barcelona’s game; almost every attack is guided through the centre.

Guardiola’s expansive 4-3-3 combined with the players at his disposal allows his side to be more flexible – time and time again we see Barca’s forward line and midfield switch positions, morphing into various formations dependent on the scenario – not allowing defences to keep track of the players they see before them. Although people have complained about this so-called lack of diversity, the Blaugrana style is so effective that it could rip any defence apart.

On the other hand, Milan’s offensive threat was not just posed by Van Basten, but also by the likes of Gullit, Donadoni, Ancelotti and Rijkaard. Milan’s 4-4-2 was more restrictive, as Milan attacked more methodically, in more business-like fashion – but were no less clinical.

They had a lot of ways of scoring, yet the basic gist was the same. While Sacchi’s team ended a game almost exactly the way they used to start it, Barcelona’s players use the same idea a bit differently, because unlike their Italian counterparts, they cannot afford to whip in crosses from the wings – none of the players have very good height.

The former Parma coach preferred the idea of “two banks of four”, which allowed his team to attack and come back to defend as one unit, while Pep too followed almost the same idea, by developing the idea wherein players can always fill in for each other in almost every position on the pitch, and the game progresses by constant interchange of positions, hence making attacking all the more difficult for the opposing side.

The entire backline of Tassotti, Baresi, Costacurta and Paolo Maldini, like Barcelona’s, were comfortable on the ball; even Galli or Valdes, the goalkeepers of the two sides, were capable of starting an attack from in front of their goal, almost acting as sweepers at the base, while the strikers of the Rossoneri scored all kinds of goals up front – whether beautiful or ugly – just like a certain Messi or Pedro or Villa do today.

In fact, the similarity between the two sides are so great, but the execution so vastly different, that one is only left to wonder of the outcome if these two sides were ever to meet in some imaginary world.

Conclusion

Arrigo Saachi’s Milan. “Grande Milan”. The last side to ever retain the European Cup, and one of the finest first XI’s ever seen on a football pitch, that comprised of the likes of Maldini, Ancelotti, Baresi and the “Flying Dutchman” Marco Van Basten, a team that had no competition in world football for a considerable time span, a team that swept aside opponents and ascended to its lofty perch as one of the greatest sides in the game.

Like wise Guardiola’s Barca, who have won much more than their predecessors, will also go down as one of the finest teams ever to have graced the game of football, that comprised of the four-time Ballon D’or winner Lionel Andres Messi, the supremely gifted and technically perfect duo of Xavi and Iniesta as well as the brilliant Busquets, who have won a mind-boggling 14 trophies in just four seasons.

The team has already been awarded the title of the most entertaining side to have ever played the game, and arguably, the greatest too.

Sacchi had once said that he had “coached the best team in history”. Whether he was right or wrong will be for the fans to ponder, but what we can definitely agree about is that Sacchi’s theory, the extension of Johann Cruyff’s “Total Football” in the 70s, was the actual precursor to the way that the Spanish champions play today. Perhaps that is reason enough for the modern day Cules, and indeed the entire footballing world, to stand up and applaud the genius that is Arrigo Sacchi.