A technical review of Skocic's style of play

[Mansoor]

Salam Doostan,
It has been a long time since I post here, though from time to time, I visit the site to enjoy reading your perspectives.

Before anything, I want to clarify that this is a technical discussion from a coaching point of view. Please direct your emotions to other threads to keep this discussion technical & educational.

Perhaps the main difference between the Skocic era & Carlos era is Dragan's persistence in position play. Carlos would give the ball to the opponent, take the space away, and keep an eye on counters against stronger teams. Dragan wants to play from the back and maintain the position. It worked against weaker teams, but it is exposed against more potent and faster opponents with the ability to play high pressure. But how does playing from the back work? Let's begin with fundamentals.

Playing from the back

In playing from the back, one of the most popular formations is 2-3-2-3 or 2-3-2-2-1:

-------- 9 -----------
--- 7 ----------11----
-------8----10-------
2--------6-----------3
----4-----------5-----
---------GK-----------

In this formation, we would need an agile 6, 8, and 10 with excellent techniques to control the ball, agility to dynamically adjust position, and the ability to make decisions to hold, short pass, or long pass the ball (air or ground). 8 or 10 must interchange their role when 6 shifts.

For example, if 6 goes toward 3, 8 must drop next to him between 2 & 6, and 10 must adjust for an inverted triangle, making himself available through passing lanes for 6, 8, or 3. The same goes for 8; if 6 shifts to 2 and 10 drops between 6 and 3.

7 & 11 must be ready for through passes and dynamically make themselves available again. 9 should not drop back to create depth and reduce pressure.

4 & 5 must be aware of the whole field and drop back to create space (backward depth) if the pressure is too high, and 2 & 3 must insist on stretching the field and creating width with movements near the line.

The goalkeeper's role is critical to the pressure as he must be a reliable source to pass back for control or fly the ball toward 7, 9, and 11 when pressure is too much and too risky to hold the ball in his own third. When the pressure is too high, the opponent gives us depth, and we must expose and punish the opponent.

There is more to this, but I keep it simple to get to the point.

Dragan's choices for position play

We are running a thin line in our choices of 4 & 5. Only Kanani has shown the ability to recognize the pressure and see the space to either drive the ball and/or feed 7,9,11 to punish the opponent. Shoja comes second to him, with PourAli distant third. No other classic CB in Iran has shown international quality in playing from the back; therefore, Dragan's poor choice of Nourafkan. Although he has the technique to play from the back but a) he is a horrible defender internationally, b) he makes poor choices under pressure c) he is too emotional to stay calm under pressure. Nourafkan's IQ, psychosocial weaknesses, and poor individual defending are simply a BAD choice by Dragan, and we paid the price in the Algeria match. See below for pictures.

We do not have a qualified 6! Ezzatollahi is not agile and does not have the dynamic to play the position as a 6 nor the technique to keep the position under pressure. He is an excellent choice for Carlos's style of play because of his physique and individual defending but is badly exposed in position plays. Perhaps the main reason competitive clubs have rejected him. Poor Saeed, I think it is his gene, and his dynamic is beyond repair. I know the clubs he was in during his early days have great movement and fitness training, but I don't think they could fix him, or maybe he was too lazy to put up with such painful training to repair.

Nour is not an international defender for 6, although he is a borderline 8 for position play with his dynamic, hustle, and acceptable technique. One can argue his effectiveness as an 8, but he is NOT a 6.

Omid comes close to a suitable 6 with his dynamic, decision-making, and hustle, but his technique and age make him a risky player for the WC stage.
Saman can play 10, but he also suffers from agility and dynamic. Gholizadeh is not a 10 for position play with his poor positioning and decision-making (IQ), another costly mistake by Dragan against Algeria. At best, he can play 7 or 11.

We have no problem with 7, 9, and 11 on top as they are perfect for their role, but unfortunately, only Kanani can feed them to punish high pressure. I must say Aghasi showed promising signs with his decision-making but is too inexperienced for WC.

The entire back and midfield are also weak in two-touch passing for position plays. The ball needs to move faster to avoid the pressure, and our players don't train well from an early age for this kind of play. We don't have the movement, positioning, or technique for quick passing against the international quality high pressure.

In summary, we have no suitable 6, and only two candidates in 4 & 5. If they get injured, the entire campaign suffers. Without them, Dragan's style of play will lead to disaster against England, the US, and Wales. After watching Algeria friendly, they will come to high pressure, and we would lose the ball for embarrassing results.

Next, I will post some pictures from the Algeria match showing our players' poor positioning and the team's shape during position plays. Honestly, it is not Dragan; we have problems with our players in the back and especially midfield for his style of play. Something needs to change, and that is not necessarily Dragan himself.

[Ali Doust]

They're is essentially two ways to build a team.
1st (Skos choice): you choose a preferred tactic and then select players to fit that tactical system.
2nd: You choose the best available players, and create a tactic that a customs their abilities.
The problem with Skos choice is that, we have a very imbalanced squad as far as quality goes. Our midfielders are in no shape or form on the level of our other positions which makes it hard to find rhythm on the pitch. For our team right now due to the level of gap between the lines, we have to go with the 2nd option. We need to select all our best players and create rolls for them to keep a balance on the field as far as quality goes. Yes some players might be out of position but IMO we would have better balance on the pitch and in result we would have better rhythm.

[Mansoor]

Look at the team's shape, especially on the right side. This mix-up leads to a scoring opportunity for Algeria:

Screen Shot 2022-07-15 at 12.29.32 PM.png

The second one leads to a score

Screen Shot 2022-07-15 at 12.32.30 PM.png

[Mansoor]

They're is essentially two ways to build a team.
1st (Skos choice): you choose a preferred tactic and then select players to fit that tactical system.
2nd: You choose the best available players, and create a tactic that a customs their abilities.
The problem with Skos choice is that, we have a very imbalanced squad as far as quality goes. Our midfielders are in no shape or form on the level of our other positions which makes it hard to find rhythm on the pitch. For our team right now due to the level of gap between the lines, we have to go with the 2nd option. We need to select all our best players and create rolls for them to keep a balance on the field as far as quality goes. Yes some players might be out of position but IMO we would have better balance on the pitch and in result we would have better rhythm.

Thank you.
Yes, we are stuck with adjusting to what we have. Slow position plays against the likes of Sterling, Bale, and Pulisic can be deadly.

[Dreamer]

Mansoor jan the photos you attached from the Algeria game aren't loading for some reason.


Fully agree with your post. Oddly enough, I think Mohammadi is a good choice for 2. He might not be the best crosser of the ball, but he pushes the ball forward enough to our 7/9/11, or at least to our 8.

I think Majid Hosseini is actually a good choice for 4/5, but not giving him playing time + not trying other players has hurt us a lot. Not to mention that unless we keep playing Ebrahimi (who is fantastic), we haven't tried any other player in the 6 position which is another massive mistake. We've just kept the same team playing forever with all it's issues and it'll cost us big time. Our formation also leads to a lot of "bezan ziresh", some hopeful pass from Nourollahi to get the ball to the front line because there's seemingly no other way or tactic to help the team do that.

One pathway with Skocic that might save us some face would be to play with an inverted triangle, and essentially go with 2 defensive midfielders rather than 1 and force them to stay back, but even that might prove costly if they decide to play emotionally.

[Keshwardoost]

think we also have problems with how we defend without the ball, not leading the opponents to play at areas where we prefer to win the ball, and at stages so our team is in good position to attack. now its free flow hawaii beach style organization, sometimes (few times per game (like short pass sequence vs algeria from tight angles), it looks brilliant brazil samba style, other most times, it looks horrible.

When we win the ball with Skokic, we are shattered as a team in a unorganized way over the field, first we need to find a way to not loose the ball, aka, invent the wheel again at every play, then we have to get in position to play out of the back, it takes time and is also risky, leading to turnovers in bad areas such as passes from the flank in panik in middle of the own half areas.

we should press in an organized way ,or defend in an organized way. as you say when a goes up, b and c muist follow and so on. when the other team has the ball we need to lead them with our movements as a team to play in certain areas that we can use to our advantage. for an example, cq led them to the flanks.
this will lead to/organized defense and organized pressplay leads to team being in a linked to each other positions when ball is concured, leading to easyer counterattack, OR easyer play setups as it doesent take as much time to get in positions aka dont need to invent the wheel again every time we win the ball. this makes it easyer to play from the back.

(sko has no such thing in display and the other team can stand with the ball in front of our penalty area several seconds and nothing happens, first half vs korea and so on. we gave messi half
a second extra in that position and he scored in 93d minute, now we give open spaces in those areas.)

thank you for your post.

[DR Strangemoosh]

Great tactical analysis

Anyone apart from Prime Milad for 2 and we will be decimated by Neco, Sterling, Pulisic etc...

I hope we can give him some mutagen or something to get him into super saiyan mode. As things stand he might not even be on the plane to Qatar....

[Mansoor]

Mansoor jan the photos you attached from the Algeria game aren't loading for some reason.


Fully agree with your post. Oddly enough, I think Mohammadi is a good choice for 2. He might not be the best crosser of the ball, but he pushes the ball forward enough to our 7/9/11, or at least to our 8.

I think Majid Hosseini is actually a good choice for 4/5, but not giving him playing time + not trying other players has hurt us a lot. Not to mention that unless we keep playing Ebrahimi (who is fantastic), we haven't tried any other player in the 6 position which is another massive mistake. We've just kept the same team playing forever with all it's issues and it'll cost us big time. Our formation also leads to a lot of "bezan ziresh", some hopeful pass from Nourollahi to get the ball to the front line because there's seemingly no other way or tactic to help the team do that.

One pathway with Skocic that might save us some face would be to play with an inverted triangle, and essentially go with 2 defensive midfielders rather than 1 and force them to stay back, but even that might prove costly if they decide to play emotionally.

Thank you. I think I fixed the images.
"We've just kept the same team playing forever with all its issues, and it'll cost us big time." Very well said. If it is not working, why insist? I know these problems can be fixed with proper drills, but I think it is too late and too big of a problem to fix.

[Keshwardoost]

About Ezzatollahi, im happy with his play even under skokic, he has been one of our best players.
can he get better? Yes definately.

I read an article about Chiellini, the great italian defender. He talked about when he was younger he broke his nose 3-4 times after sliding tackles or battles. He said he was proud to be a warrior and didnt mind it, to sacrifise the nose or injuries for the team. Then Canavarro told him that yes it is good that you have good last minute tackles, but you wouldnt need to do that if you better your positionplay and read the game better. then you wouldnt get those injuroes since your not late in to the tackles or come in from bad angles so you break your nose again.
Chiellini said Canavarros comments made him a much better player. And he hasnt broken his nose again..
'
Same goes for Ezza, I often se him play great but a litle better positioning would take him to the next level, and probably have him less injured aswell. It has nothiing/not so much to do with being lazy or bad shape as some i imagine will say, it has to purely do with positioning and read the game/think correct when you se a situation unfolding. Chiellini had Canavarro helping him with this. So its
possible to take that step.

Il se if I find the article, it was a very good one. and explains it much better than how i remember it.

[Mansoor]

think we also have problems with how we defend without the ball, not leading the opponents to play at areas where we prefer to win the ball, and at stages so our team is in good position to attack. now its free flow hawaii beach style organization, sometimes (few times per game (like short pass sequence vs algeria from tight angles), it looks brilliant brazil samba style, other most times, it looks horrible.

When we win the ball with Skokic, we are shattered as a team in a unorganized way over the field, first we need to find a way to not loose the ball, aka, invent the wheel again at every play, then we have to get in position to play out of the back, it takes time and is also risky, leading to turnovers in bad areas such as passes from the flank in panik in middle of the own half areas.

we should press in an organized way ,or defend in an organized way. as you say when a goes up, b and c muist follow and so on. when the other team has the ball we need to lead them with our movements as a team to play in certain areas that we can use to our advantage. for an example, cq led them to the flanks.
this will lead to/organized defense and organized pressplay leads to team being in a linked to each other positions when ball is concured, leading to easyer counterattack, OR easyer play setups as it doesent take as much time to get in positions aka dont need to invent the wheel again every time we win the ball. this makes it easyer to play from the back.

(sko has no such thing in display and the other team can stand with the ball in front of our penalty area several seconds and nothing happens, first half vs korea and so on. we gave messi half
a second extra in that position and he scored in 93d minute, now we give open spaces in those areas.)

thank you for your post.

Thank you.
Defending phase is another discussion and we do have problem(s) as you mentioned. I am not sure if he wants players to play mid-block or low-block like Carlos era but they look like they are stuck in twilight zone between the two. High pressure for this team against the WC opponents is out of question. We don't have the speed, shape, back support, etc to play high pressure against these teams. It will work against slow Bahrain & Iraq but England, US, and Walves will chew us with their speed of play.

[Dubxl152]

About Ezzatollahi, im happy with his play even under skokic, he has been one of our best players.
can he get better? Yes definately.
I read an article about Bonnucci, the great italian defender. He talked about when he was younger he broke his nose 3-4 times after sliding tackles or battles. He said he was proud to be a warrior and didnt mind it, to sacrifise the nose or injuries for the team. Then Canavarro told him that yes it is good that you have good last minute tackles, but you wouldnt need to do that if you better your positionplay and read the game better. then you wouldnt get those injuroes since your not late in to the tackles or come in from bad angles so you break your nose again.
Bonucci said Canavarros comments made him a much better player. And he hasnt broken his nose again..
Same goes for Ezza, I often se him play great but a litle better positioning would take him to the next level, and probably have him less injured aswell. It has nothiing/not so much to do with being lazy or bad shape as some i imagine will say, it has to purely do with positioning and read the game/think correct when you se a situation unfolding. Bonucci had Canavarro helping him with this. So its possible to take that step.
Il se if I find the article, it was a very good one. and explains it much better than how i remember it.

Saied has the ability and physique to be a world class player. He is just missing the mental aspect of the game. Ever since his injury he has struggled.

Excellent post and Analysis. Refreshing to read a quality thread

[Mansoor]

Great tactical analysis

Anyone apart from Prime Milad for 2 and we will be decimated by Neco, Sterling, Pulisic etc...

I hope we can give him some mutagen or something to get him into super saiyan mode. As things stand he might not even be on the plane to Qatar....

Thank you.
As you said, I think we are far from Prime Milad and he is in his downside curve. Amiri is the only choice we are left with, and he is also showing signs of downside curve with his age. Add the injury to it, and .... we have no one!

[Keshwardoost]

I found the article, probably one of the best i have read.


Document: Chiellini – the complete defensive player?

The smiling giant, the soft hardy, the thinking fighter.

The complete defensive player?

After 20 years in football's premier defensive university, Giorgio Chiellini is now ready for graduation.

A few years ago, Jose Mourinho said the Italian national team's centre-back pair should teach defence at Harvard, and although he is a bit too modest to absorb the whole idea, Giorgio Chiellini liked the premise itself.
He also views defence as a craft, a specialist area, a subject of study – something that should be handed down from master to apprentice, from generation to generation.

For him, Fabio Cannavaro was the mentor, the consummate professional. They got a couple of seasons together at Juventus and a few years together in the national team.

Chiellini marveled at how Cannavaro was able to win all the duels despite being only 175 centimeters tall. He was amazed at the ability to direct the defense, to tie the team together, to see the games as a long list of details and a great whole at the same time.

He himself had made it a long way on his defensive journey, but now realized how far he still had left. Fabio Cannavaro was the facit. He was the captain who led his national team all the way to World Cup gold, the only defender to win the Ballon d'Or in the last 25 years.

- In the defenders' encyclopedia, only he can write the first chapter.

Mom was a shot putter, Dad was a doctor
So Giorgio Chiellini saw and learned, sucked in everything that Fabio Cannavaro did. He studied out on the field, he studied in the locker room and he studied in the hotel.

Playing centre-back wasn't something that was improvised based on the impulse of the moment out there on the pitch. It was something he took very seriously, which he prepared for as seriously as it ever could.

•••

We live to live, to build and create – but also to protect, to maintain and preserve. We live to defend, and defending is an art: My art. Defend values, a legacy, great and small achievements. Defend a border. Defend the people we love, their health and well-being. Defending is a job, a consistent choice. To defend the life we have imagined, designed and built together.

•••

In his spare time, Giorgio Chiellini's mother was a shot putter, during working hours his father worked as a doctor. There's something in that combination that sums him up quite effectively.

Half power gater, half bookworm.

He was not born a defender, but was an inside midfielder well into his teens. Then he became a winger, then he was pulled down to the full-back and finally moved into central defence.

When he says it changed his life, he's not being ironic. When he claims that it made him see the whole of existence in a new way, he himself does not think that he is exaggerating.

"When I became a centre-back, everything was turned upside down. It aroused a desire to defend my territory, an almost animal instinct to guard my den.


Foto: Valerio Pennicino / Getty Images Europe
From the beginning, it was that instinct that guided Giorgio Chiellini's new life as a defender. It was physical, emotional, bordering on primitive. He performed best when targeting a specific opponent, turning the football match into a man-to-man duel where everything was allowed.

"My enemy was born to inflict pain on me, he was designed for that. And I was created to prevent it. You have to make the weight of your body feel for your opponent, to weigh against him. The contact, friction, body mass. The elbows, the pushes, the kicks. The looks, the grimaces and the words.

Chiellini thrived on these direct confrontations, and he was good at them. He had never seen himself as particularly talented – "the god of football didn't kiss me" – but now he understood that there were different kinds of talent.

He had inexhaustible stamina, a high pain threshold, and an ability to convert his fears into energy. It helped him make himself a protective wall, a roadblock, a barrier.

The opponent who was going to the goal needed to get past him, and not very many succeeded. Giorgio Chiellini sacrificed his own body to prevent it. He took the cracked eyebrows, the knocked out teeth, and the cracked noses without blinking.

He even put pride in the scars and fractures, in his willingness to sacrifice himself for a greater cause.

•••

Football and defense is a battle in which no prisoners are taken. If they win, I'm dead. If I win, they die. Sport is an arena where death is small and symbolic, but when you lose, it's really like dying a bit. Then if you win, you rise like Lazarus. There are no intermediate modes. It's heartbreaking, but it's also life-giving. It's brutal and beautiful.

•••

It was, of course, Fabio Cannavaro who made Giorgio Chiellini examine himself, to twist his way of prioritizing and functioning.

By the time the two started playing together, Chiellini had already broken his nose four times. Cannavaro shook his Neapolitan head, asking if it was bravery medals or football trophies that were the goal.

"To this day, I should give Cannavaro a portion of my salary for everything he taught me. He told me, "It's your own fault that you break your nose all the time." He was right. It's not the right attitude to constantly look for situations where you can throw yourself in head first – on the contrary, it's the wrong approach to defense.

Mathematics was first love
Although he was endowed with a lion's heart, Giorgio Chiellini's most important characteristic has probably been the humble ability to listen and learn.

He has never had the omniscient arrogance of the super-talent, but instead understood that he can learn things from those who have gone before. In addition, he has an aptitude for understanding connection and context, for distinguishing cause from effect.

At school, math was really his first love. The methods that brought order out of chaos gave him a satisfactory calm, yet he resigned him early to his own limitations.

The central riddles of mathematics lay beyond his reach. He needed too much help and guidance to see the patterns of arithmetic, but he still wanted to continue to challenge and develop his intellect.

Economy it had to be. And defense.

Chiellini approached both fields of study with much the same enthusiasm and much the same way of working. The physical workouts in the mornings were replaced by the intellectuals. In the afternoons he opened the books for the sake of numbers, in the evenings he turned up the computer for the sake of football.

Simply put, he started using the inside of his head rather than the outside, and he still does. Nowadays, he sees his understanding of the game as his absolute greatest strength, but it is also not something that comes automatically and free.

It takes work.


Foto: Christof Stache - Pool / Getty Images Europe
When it comes to match, Giorgio Chiellini always shuts himself in his home office when the rest of the family goes to bed. He then sits there for three quarters of an area, studying videos of the opposing team collectively and their center forward specifically.

How do they move? What passes are they looking for? What automations are they based on?

"Before, I always sought body contact – but your gaze also provides a kind of contact. The gaze on the ball, the gaze on the opponent, the vigilance to open up a surface that gives you the opportunity to move 360 degrees. As a defender, your body position, your body angle is crucial.

Every game and every situation is unique – but to some extent everything is a repetition of things that have happened before. Giorgio Chiellini believes that the really great defender borders on being psychic, to a kind of medium of football.

"Prevention is better than cure. It no longer really happens that a situation arises where I don't know where I need to place myself. And I don't think – I know.

•••

When we concede a goal, I almost feel the victim of an assault, victim of both physical and mental pain. It's like lying in bed with an elephant on your stomach.

•••

When he's not studying opponents, Giorgio Chiellini examines himself, both intently and ruthlessly.

It's not a chore he enjoys, but it's also a job that needs to be done. If he's forced to pinpoint his drive, it's actually not winning – it's avoiding conceding goals, avoiding losing, avoiding that consuming feeling.

Every mistake he makes eats him up from within. Each defeat literally sends him into a shorter life crisis.

"I feel the losses much more strongly than the gains. The goals conceded are like an obsession, like a disease that needs to be cured. And the losses bring with them an inner rage, a storm that devastates everything.

"My conscience is very critical"
Ahead of a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund in the spring of 2015, a Juventus material manager had replaced Chiellini's shoe soles without notifying him. As a result, he slipped, giving Marco Reus free to a goal. In any case, that's what his own judgment looks like, that the millimeter-small changes inside his shoes affected his balance.

Juventus won the game 2-1 – the double-header 5-1 – but the mistake still teases Chiellini today. The anger for it he turns inward. The fault wasn't the material's, it was his own because he didn't control his equipment properly.

"My conscience is very critical, I would say merciless. I never think, "The teammate next to me, in front of me, behind me would have done this or that." If anything, I think, "What could I have done? What should I have done?".

Otherwise, the gross and clear mistakes do not occupy a very large part of self-analysis. Partly because they are not committed very often, and partly because they evaluate themselves. Instead, Giorgio Chiellini talks about "the half mistake," the one that may not even be visible to the audience, but that makes all the difference.

"90 percent of all cases are due to a defender taking the wrong position or making the wrong decision. Sometimes they are because someone has moved instead of understanding that he should stand still. Sometimes because someone has given up when he realized he wasn't going to reach the ball, rather than still trying to close down the angles for the shooter and make it easier for the goalkeeper.

•••

We are creations of dreams, hopes and fears. We need to imagine what we want and how to keep what we have. We are created to preserve as much as we are shaped to push forward. Protecting and nurturing is also the future.

•••

The last time Italy went out of a European Championship tournament, Giorgio Chiellini returned to his hometown of Livorno wrapped in a haze. In silence, he walked back and forth with his little daughter in a stroller.

"I was almost like a stranger to myself, didn't understand where I was and what I was doing there.

Channeling disappointment constructively has been the big challenge in the later stage of Giorgio Chiellini's career, to master the fear of the mistake and loss in a way that leads forward.


Foto: Claudio Villa / Getty Images Europe
His most painful defeat is still fresh, even though almost four years have passed.

"The failure of the World Cup play-off against Sweden will never end. It was our own fault, and it will remain unforgivable, impossible to erase.

Unless Italy were unlucky over two games? Maybe so, but Giorgio Chiellini basically doesn't believe in that sort of thing. He sees bad luck as "a loser's alibi."

"You're really unlucky once or twice in your life – no more.

Today, Giorgio Chiellini no longer sees the fight against the opponent as the decisive duel, but today his entire career is based on the war against himself.

Soon to be 37 years old, he must first and foremost make sure to get out on the pitch in the condition he requires of himself. The day the body or head can no longer cope, it's over.

Basically, he sees himself as a rather problematizing person, but in recent years he has made an active choice to choose optimism. Today, he makes sure to always start the day with a smile, and it's not just a saying. It's real, and it's mandatory.

"Most important of all is empathy"
On August 24, 2019, he tore his cruciate ligament in the series opener against Parma. He was 35 years old, knew immediately that he would miss virtually the entire season. But give up, lay off? Never an option.

It was six o'clock in the afternoon when the cruciate ligament broke. Before seven o'clock, Giorgio Chiellini was already laughing again, joking with both the doctor and all those who got in touch and regretted.

When head coach Roberto Mancini called, he almost wondered if his cheerfully hooting defensive general had ingested some type of nitrous oxide.

"Mister, now I'm resting a bit. Then I'll be fresh as a rose for the European Championships.

The European Championship would certainly be postponed for a year, but that did not make Giorgio Chiellini's prognosis and self-diagnosis any less accurate. In the summer of 2021, he has now taken his national team almost as far as Fabio Cannavaro did, all the way to a championship final.

He does so out of newly conquered beliefs about the possibility of empowering a team simply by smiling, laughing, enjoying and infecting himself with his charisma.

Sometime a year, chiellini, Bonucci or one of Juventus' other senators act as ambassadors at a type of exclusive networking event with the club's major sponsors. The questions tend to be pretty much the same every time: Can the business community learn anything from top football? What really distinguishes winners from losers?

"Most important of all is empathy. How do you create it? How do you maintain it? If there is empathy between coaches and players and between players among themselves, you will play better, win more often.

Once upon a time, Giorgio Chiellini believed that defense was based on body contact. Actually, he's still doing it, just in a different way than before. In the past, he focused on the melee with the opponent, today he actively seeks physical closeness with his fellow players.

A hug here, a highfive there, a chest bump when the ball is covered out to the corner.

"Things like that break down walls, make people open up. It's an effective way to build empathy out there on the field.


Foto: Claudio Villa / Getty Images Europe
As Giorgio Chiellini himself likes to say: strikers sell tickets, defenders win matches. He often and gladly proselytizes for the need to give backs more attention and more appreciation – if only because he so badly wants to see the legacy live on.

In an era of Guardiola football and VAR assessments, he sees the traditional Italian defender as endangered. He likes to express himself both grandly and vulgarly about the somewhat spiritual dimensions of the defensive – the italicized quotes in this text are taken from his autobiography – but of course he still understands the rules of the game that apply in this struggle.

If the defense is to have a renaissance, the defense must clearly lead to victories. Preferably on as often as possible in as big matches as possible. Preferably in say a European Championship final at Wembley.

Giorgio Chiellini would love to decide such a match. Not by scoring, no, he would mostly just see that as a coincidence. In that case, much rather through a decisive slip tackle or a dramatic blocked shot.

Or preferably – by nothing special happening at all inside the Italian penalty area. That's when he and his comrades really did their job, practiced their craft, created something that is invisible and spectacular at the same time.

"For me, defence is an art form, a way of being, a way of understanding my existence. Scoring goals is fun, but it's not my life. Preventing goals – that's my life, my reason to live.

[Mansoor]

Saied has the ability and physique to be a world class player. He is just missing the mental aspect of the game. Ever since his injury he has struggled.

Excellent post and Analysis. Refreshing to read a quality thread

Thank you.
You are right about his potential. I am unsure if it is a mental aspect, or if it is his agility affecting his dynamic and adjusting to position plays. He is a solid force in low-block defending though and fits those teams with such a style of play very well..

[Mansoor]

Thank you, Keshvardoost aziz, for posting this excellent article. So interesting to understand the mentality and the mindset of a world-class defender. What a monstrous mindset!