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Tattica: Comparisons to Schällibaum in Serie A
A few weeks back now, just after the first week of January, the Montreal Impact announced that Marco Schällibaum, aged 50, was appointed as their new head coach. The Swiss Schällibaum coached 10 season in the Swiss Super League for FC Basel, BSC Young Boys, Servette FC, FC Sion, FC Schaffhausen and AC Bellinzona. Schällibaum arrives in Montreal as an unknown manager. What kind of coach can we to expect? Schällibaum is not the first foreign coach to come to MLS.
"I like attacking play, going for the win," Schällibaum said in his
introductory press conference at Stade Saputo. "Technically, it's easier to move around with the ball than without the ball."
“He is a coach that likes to be very close with his players, but preaches discipline and organization, “ told brazilian midfielder Felipe, who played for him in Lugano. Dennis Iapichino is another who played under Schällibaum at Lugano.
Schällibaum will have the 2013 season to try to install his methodology and tactical approach. With a squad loaded with Italian players such as Alessandro Nesta, Marco Di Vaio, Matteo Ferrari, and Andrea Pisanu, everyboy was thinking about hiring an Italian coach, but really this choice still has some Italian traits.
It resembles Lazio's appointment of Vladimir Petkovic last summer. The Bosnian-born Swiss-Croatian football manager went to Rome as a dark horse only to build Lazio into a contender for a Champions League spot. Schällibaum has some similarities with Petkovic.
As the Montreal's manager, Schällibaum isn’t linked to a specific formation and offers some flexibility trying different approaches of football to find the right one for his teams. Like Petkovic, he believes the players must dictate the tactics and not vice versa – it means adapt tactics to his players. He has proven this can work during this campaign.
Petkovic came to Rome last summer with the idea to play active soccer, with his centre-backs playing higher and for the forwards to press up top in a way they had never done before. During this summer, it was almost impossible for Lazio to dominate possession, and with the midfielders moving up, opposition were free to exploit the space left by Lazio in the middle of the pitch. The high defensive line was often exposed to rivals' counter-attacks with Lazio's players unable to read the moment in which to collapse down and avoid a ball across the line.
The new system worked well on fast-breaks, with Petkovic's side able to provide assistance to the forwards. But with no pressure up top when possession was lost and with players with a bad attitude coming back to help the midfield, defending against counter-attacks was still a problem.
The other issue was the distance between defensive and midfield's lines, where there was gaps exploited by the other side. So Petkovic adjusted during the season, switching to a more compact three man midfield and to a more classic 4-3-3/4-5-1. The pressing line wasn't up top anymore, while the defensive line stayed more deep. So Petkovic wisely revised his tactical approach. His initial idea was - and maybe is - to play offensive football, with five men going forward in the offensive phase. But he changed his mind and has adapted his tactics according to his players’ skills.
Like Petkovic, the newly hired Schällibaum speaks many languages: German, French, Italian and English. To help his transition to MLS, Schällibaum decided to retain Montreal native Mauro Biello as an assistant coach promoting Youssef Dahha at goalkeeping coach position while former assistants Mike Sorber and Denis Hamlett have been moven into other positions with the club. Time will tell if this hire follows similar success that Lazio has enjoyed so far this season.
Michele Tossani is a football tactician with a Ph.D. in History. Michele resides in Florence, Italy and is a tactical analyst for Futbol-Tactico.com
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