Ancelotti, Sacchi and Guardiola on tiki-taka and man-management skills

Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola and Arrigo Sacchi compared notes on the Coaches who influenced them the most, including tiki-taka and man-management skills.

The three tacticians sat down on stage at the Festival dello Sport event in Trento and debated the fundamentals of football. You can read part one of their conversation here.

“Johan Cruijff was the most important person that I worked with, as he opened my eyes with his style of football,” said Manchester City manager Guardiola.

“He helped us all understand a different way of looking at football. It was like going to school every day. We would win and he’d tell us the reason we were winning. He made us fall in love.

“It’s no coincidence that so many players who worked under Sacchi and Cruijff are now Coaches, because their minds were opened. They gave us new love for the sport.

“I didn’t invent tiki-taka. We won the Champions League with Barcelona and a team full of players who had started in the academy at the age of 8-10. It was a unique moment of the stars aligning, with the faith of the club and a group of lads who all saw football the same way. We could’ve signed bigger stars, but wanted to cultivate that hunger.

“To be honest, I don’t really like tiki-taka much as a concept, but we knew exactly where we wanted to go with the ball. There is nostalgia for it now, but it was wonderful to experience it. We’ll see if they still talk about it in 10-20 years, much like they do with great movies.”

Ancelotti was one of the founding figures of Sacchi’s Grande Milan project of the late 1980s, then became his assistant manager for Italy at the 1994 World Cup.

“I had some important teachers and on a human resources level, none better than Nils Liedholm. In the 1980s he was fundamental, as he didn’t put pressure on.

“The role of a Coach is complex, but enjoyable, as you have to think that there are 25 players and everyone is important in the same way, from the kit staff to the biggest star. My idea of dealing with a group is to make people as comfortable as possible, give responsibility and delegate.

“Sometimes people tell me I’m too soft, I need a whip, but if you want someone like that, then call another Coach. Experience makes you that way. If I am too harsh in front of the players, I lose credibility.

“In technical terms, Sacchi was decisive, as I trained with him for five years and realised the importance of having a method to prepare sessions and try to transmit your ideas to the players. Before that, training sessions were largely 20 minutes of warm-up, half-an-hour of playing between ranks and 10 minutes of target practice.

“It was like a whole other world. When we were pressing and stealing the ball to go on the counter, then the defensive movements became active rather than totally passive, it was far more stimulating.”

Sacchi remains firmly entrenched in his philosophy of the tactics above all else, almost to the detriment of individual talent.

“A victory without merit in my view is not a real victory. I tried to apply a method to every team I had, as I was in love with Holland, Brazil and Ajax, trying to figure out how they were playing like that.

“The last 50 years in the sport have been a constant evolution from Ajax to Holland, Milan to Guardiola’s Barcelona. Without evolution, the sport is dead. Without risks, you remain in the past, whereas innovation makes you change every year.

“In Italy, we have this short-term view of everything and want to stop time, stick with the past. Pessimism blocks your brain. If you play in defence, how can you grow?”Guardiola was asked what he’d like to ‘steal’ from Ancelotti and the first response was: “His hair! When you speak to the players he worked with, every one of them praises him as a marvellous man and Coach.”

Asked the same question in return, Ancelotti joked: “I certainly don’t want Guardiola’s hair… Perhaps I’d take the speed with which he transmits his ideas to the team, as in that sense he’s phenomenal.

“Every Coach has his ideas, but only the great ones can accurately pass them on to the others who then have to play on the pitch. You need to be seen as credible in their eyes.”

Sacchi agreed that Ancelotti “inspires confidence and trust. He might not have the obsessive nature that I had with tactics, which I think Guardiola also shares, that perfectionism.”