Voters are asked to consider the XIs featured as remakes of classic teams, and to consider to what extent the manager has succeeded in re-creating both the individual roles and the overall functionality of the original. THIS IS NOT A FANTASY MATCH BETWEEN TWO SIDES, but rather a comparison of remakes.
Please feel free to tag the managers if you require more information about their set-ups/players etc.
Much like the grande Inter our team is built on the principles of a team effort and strong work ethic, Organization is of prime importance. Catenaccio predicated itself on always having a spare man in defense. It accomplished this by using man-marking; each Inter player knew who he was meant to be keeping tabs on in his half of the field. The spare man was the sweeper, for those Inter teams, Armando Picchi, cleaning up anyone who slipped their marker long enough to provide a threat.
Offensively the idea is to stay deep, soak the pressure, win the ball back in their half and launch the ball forward with speed and directness. Directness is the key here and this along with the ability to play the counter attacking system has weighed heavily in my picks.
Style -
Counter attacking, Direct, Long passes. Defend deep as a team and employ a lot of time wasting when leading.
Defensive line - Deep. Di Stéfano described Picchi to Lowe as - “one of those sweepers who played so deep that, if there was a bit of fog and you thought you’d gone past all of them, another one would appear. ‘Where did that guy come from? Are they playing with 12, or what?”
This is exactly how I want my sweeper (Carvalho) to play.
Marking - Strictly man marking with a free sweeper.
Off the ball - Drop deep to own half, with each man sticking to his player, while the free sweeper stays further back to provide last line of defense. Win the ball with tough tackling.
On the ball - Pump the ball into the box with long passes from deep and direct runs.
Player roles:
Goalkeeper – David De gea
Since in Catenaccio we are already playing with a very deep defensive line and a designated sweeper we don't need a sweeper keeper. What we need is a keeper who can save long shots, someone who can get to the firecrackers ripped from long-range by teams frustrated by our deep defending and marking. Dave is lanky and quick with probably the best reflexes in business, and he has been making miraculous saves on a daily basis and so he gets the nod.
Sweeper – Ricardo Carvalho
The problem with choosing a purely defensive sweeper (as opposed to an attack-minded sweeper, like Scirea or Beckenbauer) is either the absence of qualified candidates or the preponderance of them. Few teams play with a true sweeper anymore, and usually only as part of a three-man defense. But on the other hand, as has been written about in too many places to cite any one of them, all center-backs today play to an extent as sweepers, with one dropping to provide cover as the other moves forward to engage the ball.
Carvalho, however, fits the characteristics we’re looking for — he’s great with ball and intelligent in his positioning — and has actually played in a pretty deep defensive line in one of the best counterattacking teams of current era, and was part of one of the best defensive partnership in premiership.
Left Fullback – Marcelo
The knock on Marcelo is obviously his defensive ability. He is actually not that bad and put consistently good performances for Real, but he is prone to having an occasional brainfart on the field. However there is no question on his offensive contribution, as he is probably the best offensive left back of current era.
Since Facchetti is impossible to replicate, we had to make compromises in some of the attributes. As Herrera himself placed a large importance on the attacking capabilities of his left back that is what we have decided to prioritize.
“The problem is that most of the ones who copied me copied me wrongly. They forgot to include the attacking principles that my Catenaccio included. I had Picchi as a sweeper, yes, but I also had Facchetti, the first full-back to score as many goals as a forward.” - Herrera
In this Marcelo is the ideal man for this job. Giacinto Facchetti was a big, fast attacking fullback who scored 75 total goals during his Inter career. He got up the line to provide width in attack and got back to mark the opponent’s tornante. Marcelo's got the speed for that, plus the crossing ability to provide the width, plus the knack for goal-scoring.
Center Defender – Pepe
Ideally catenaccio should be a system that’s not just difficult to play against, but that opponents despise playing against. While some (esp Herrara himself) would argue that there was fair amount of attacking in catenaccio (and there was), there is no denying that there was a deep cynicism and win at any cost mentality with this system.
One of great catenaccio proponent Milan’s coach Rocco is said to have told his team before a match:
“Kick anything that moves; if it’s the ball, so much the better.”
Oh how would they have loved to have Pepe.
Pepe’s like a professional wrestling heel; his ability to draw heat and being the pantomime villain is astonishing.What gets lost sometime in his forward hacking, dive acting and general cuntishness though, is that he is pretty damn good defender. 2 times champions league winner, twice selected in Euro team of the tournament, Pepe gives us the right combination of strength, aerial ability, and ruthlessness to be our left-central defender. He is also the standout performer in a final reaching Portugal team in current Euro tournament.
Center-Right Defender – Carles Puyol
One of the interesting wrinkles of Herrera’s system is the narrow positioning of its right back, a player who is literally a center-right defender. This was important in the Serie A of that period, because the dominant formation called for a winger on the right side — Jair Da Costa for Inter — but no corresponding presence on the left. So defenses shifted away from that part of the pitch to fill in gaps in more dangerous areas.
It’s an interesting concept to consider in modern times, with the profusion of inverted wingers looking to cut inside onto their stronger foot. Some coaches have dealt with this by playing left-footed players on the right side of the defense (or vice versa). For us, we have someone comfortable both in the center and on the right coming out from the middle of the field to meet them as they cut inside.
Puyol is the man for the job because he meets both our positional requirements, and because he’s got the speed to slide out and cover the right flank when that’s needed. Since catenaccio calls for man-marking, he can play further out on the right in a four-man defense when needed, or slide in and become the second center back in a three-man defense.
Defensive Midfielder – Javier Mascherano
Fortunately for Mascherano, he doesn’t have to master off the ball movement and one-touch passing in this system. All we’re asking him to do is stick to the opposing playmaker and make him pay every time he touches the ball. I have faith he could handle that.
Regista – Juan Sebastian Veron
I have spent quite a bit of time defending Andrea Pirlo for this role in last few games, and I still believe that a peak Pirlo is probably the best fit for a deep lying playmaker in a deep siting, counter attacking team.
However the error of my thinking is that I am not creating just any Catenaccio team, but a very specific team - Grande Inter. And my Regista is always going to be compared to Inter's Luis Suarez, so its probably better to give up slightly on tactical fit to get a better player remake.
This search for a deep-lying playmaker to replace Inter’s Luis Suarez has two names at the top of the list: Iniesta and Veron. Iniesta because he is probably the most similar player to Suarez by his own admission. The problem is that his peak IMO is as a left sided attacking midfielder. He also never played in a counter attacking team or in a role where he consistently has to release pressure from deep and find an attacker with long ball.
I think I got lucky that Iniesta got blocked since going from Pirlo to Iniesta would have been going to other extreme, a better player remake but a lesser tactical fit. Veron actually provides a happy medium, as he combines defensive sturdiness, box to box ability, silky playmaking, immaculate long distance passing and ability to score goals. Because of the distance between our defensive and attacking central midfielders, our regista’s not always going to have the option of playing the easy pass forward through the opponent’s midfield. Veron has escape artist instincts and the ability to take the ball around, through, or over pressure, which will help buy him time to play his killer long passes to our target forward or breaking flank players.
Please feel free to tag the managers if you require more information about their set-ups/players etc.
Team Tuppet
Philosophy/Ideology of Tactical set-up
Much like the grande Inter our team is built on the principles of a team effort and strong work ethic, Organization is of prime importance. Catenaccio predicated itself on always having a spare man in defense. It accomplished this by using man-marking; each Inter player knew who he was meant to be keeping tabs on in his half of the field. The spare man was the sweeper, for those Inter teams, Armando Picchi, cleaning up anyone who slipped their marker long enough to provide a threat.
Offensively the idea is to stay deep, soak the pressure, win the ball back in their half and launch the ball forward with speed and directness. Directness is the key here and this along with the ability to play the counter attacking system has weighed heavily in my picks.
Style -
Counter attacking, Direct, Long passes. Defend deep as a team and employ a lot of time wasting when leading.
Defensive line - Deep. Di Stéfano described Picchi to Lowe as - “one of those sweepers who played so deep that, if there was a bit of fog and you thought you’d gone past all of them, another one would appear. ‘Where did that guy come from? Are they playing with 12, or what?”
This is exactly how I want my sweeper (Carvalho) to play.
Marking - Strictly man marking with a free sweeper.
Off the ball - Drop deep to own half, with each man sticking to his player, while the free sweeper stays further back to provide last line of defense. Win the ball with tough tackling.
On the ball - Pump the ball into the box with long passes from deep and direct runs.
Player roles:
Goalkeeper – David De gea
Since in Catenaccio we are already playing with a very deep defensive line and a designated sweeper we don't need a sweeper keeper. What we need is a keeper who can save long shots, someone who can get to the firecrackers ripped from long-range by teams frustrated by our deep defending and marking. Dave is lanky and quick with probably the best reflexes in business, and he has been making miraculous saves on a daily basis and so he gets the nod.
Sweeper – Ricardo Carvalho
The problem with choosing a purely defensive sweeper (as opposed to an attack-minded sweeper, like Scirea or Beckenbauer) is either the absence of qualified candidates or the preponderance of them. Few teams play with a true sweeper anymore, and usually only as part of a three-man defense. But on the other hand, as has been written about in too many places to cite any one of them, all center-backs today play to an extent as sweepers, with one dropping to provide cover as the other moves forward to engage the ball.
Carvalho, however, fits the characteristics we’re looking for — he’s great with ball and intelligent in his positioning — and has actually played in a pretty deep defensive line in one of the best counterattacking teams of current era, and was part of one of the best defensive partnership in premiership.
Left Fullback – Marcelo
The knock on Marcelo is obviously his defensive ability. He is actually not that bad and put consistently good performances for Real, but he is prone to having an occasional brainfart on the field. However there is no question on his offensive contribution, as he is probably the best offensive left back of current era.
Since Facchetti is impossible to replicate, we had to make compromises in some of the attributes. As Herrera himself placed a large importance on the attacking capabilities of his left back that is what we have decided to prioritize.
“The problem is that most of the ones who copied me copied me wrongly. They forgot to include the attacking principles that my Catenaccio included. I had Picchi as a sweeper, yes, but I also had Facchetti, the first full-back to score as many goals as a forward.” - Herrera
In this Marcelo is the ideal man for this job. Giacinto Facchetti was a big, fast attacking fullback who scored 75 total goals during his Inter career. He got up the line to provide width in attack and got back to mark the opponent’s tornante. Marcelo's got the speed for that, plus the crossing ability to provide the width, plus the knack for goal-scoring.
Center Defender – Pepe
Ideally catenaccio should be a system that’s not just difficult to play against, but that opponents despise playing against. While some (esp Herrara himself) would argue that there was fair amount of attacking in catenaccio (and there was), there is no denying that there was a deep cynicism and win at any cost mentality with this system.
One of great catenaccio proponent Milan’s coach Rocco is said to have told his team before a match:
“Kick anything that moves; if it’s the ball, so much the better.”
Oh how would they have loved to have Pepe.
Pepe’s like a professional wrestling heel; his ability to draw heat and being the pantomime villain is astonishing.What gets lost sometime in his forward hacking, dive acting and general cuntishness though, is that he is pretty damn good defender. 2 times champions league winner, twice selected in Euro team of the tournament, Pepe gives us the right combination of strength, aerial ability, and ruthlessness to be our left-central defender. He is also the standout performer in a final reaching Portugal team in current Euro tournament.
Center-Right Defender – Carles Puyol
One of the interesting wrinkles of Herrera’s system is the narrow positioning of its right back, a player who is literally a center-right defender. This was important in the Serie A of that period, because the dominant formation called for a winger on the right side — Jair Da Costa for Inter — but no corresponding presence on the left. So defenses shifted away from that part of the pitch to fill in gaps in more dangerous areas.
It’s an interesting concept to consider in modern times, with the profusion of inverted wingers looking to cut inside onto their stronger foot. Some coaches have dealt with this by playing left-footed players on the right side of the defense (or vice versa). For us, we have someone comfortable both in the center and on the right coming out from the middle of the field to meet them as they cut inside.
Puyol is the man for the job because he meets both our positional requirements, and because he’s got the speed to slide out and cover the right flank when that’s needed. Since catenaccio calls for man-marking, he can play further out on the right in a four-man defense when needed, or slide in and become the second center back in a three-man defense.
Defensive Midfielder – Javier Mascherano
Fortunately for Mascherano, he doesn’t have to master off the ball movement and one-touch passing in this system. All we’re asking him to do is stick to the opposing playmaker and make him pay every time he touches the ball. I have faith he could handle that.
Regista – Juan Sebastian Veron
I have spent quite a bit of time defending Andrea Pirlo for this role in last few games, and I still believe that a peak Pirlo is probably the best fit for a deep lying playmaker in a deep siting, counter attacking team.
However the error of my thinking is that I am not creating just any Catenaccio team, but a very specific team - Grande Inter. And my Regista is always going to be compared to Inter's Luis Suarez, so its probably better to give up slightly on tactical fit to get a better player remake.
This search for a deep-lying playmaker to replace Inter’s Luis Suarez has two names at the top of the list: Iniesta and Veron. Iniesta because he is probably the most similar player to Suarez by his own admission. The problem is that his peak IMO is as a left sided attacking midfielder. He also never played in a counter attacking team or in a role where he consistently has to release pressure from deep and find an attacker with long ball.
I think I got lucky that Iniesta got blocked since going from Pirlo to Iniesta would have been going to other extreme, a better player remake but a lesser tactical fit. Veron actually provides a happy medium, as he combines defensive sturdiness, box to box ability, silky playmaking, immaculate long distance passing and ability to score goals. Because of the distance between our defensive and attacking central midfielders, our regista’s not always going to have the option of playing the easy pass forward through the opponent’s midfield. Veron has escape artist instincts and the ability to take the ball around, through, or over pressure, which will help buy him time to play his killer long passes to our target forward or breaking flank players.
