Not even Pep Guardiola can boast the same level of success as the under-appreciated Italian, who is bidding to win his fifth European Cup as a coach.
When Arrigo Sacchi and Carlo Ancelotti spoke the morning after Real Madrid had knocked Bayern Munich out of the Champions League with two late goals, the older man was still suffering the effects of the nerve-shredding nature of the victory.
“Carlo, I had a really bad time watching that game!” Sacchi said with faux fury. “Arrigo, it’s a tactic,” Ancelotti dead-panned. “We pretend to be dead and then, suddenly, at the end of the match, we rise again and win!”
The Madrid boss was obviously joking, but there are those that seriously believe that Ancelotti is a man without a plan; all vibes, no tactics. Indeed, his critics see him as some sort of Italian Harry Redknapp, nicking a living for years at some of Europe’s elite clubs by simply telling Cristiano Ronaldo & Co. to “just f*cking run about”.
Such a view does Ancelotti a great disservice. After all, we’re talking about a man who has a strong claim on the title of the greatest manager of all time.
War for football’s soul
The likes of Fabio Capello and Jorge Valdano have long argued that, for better or for worse, Pep Guardiola has become the biggest influence on the coaching world. The Catalan clearly won the war with Jose Mourinho for football’s soul while his beautiful Barcelona side collided with the Portuguese’s pragmatic Real Madrid in one toxic Clasico clash after another more than a decade ago.
Consequently, Guardiola’s followers are now everywhere. Arsenal clearly felt that the only way to compete with Guardiola was to hire one of his proteges in Mikel Arteta. Following the shock loss of Jurgen Klopp, who simply ran out of energy trying to keep up with the relentless winning machine Guardiola constructed at the Etihad, Liverpool have turned to a self-confessed super-fan of the Man City boss in Arne Slot.
And only this week, Bayern Munich gave one of the biggest jobs in the world to Vincent Kompany, a recently-relegated coach that appears to have only one qualification: he once played under Pep. Chelsea, meanwhile, are set to appoint another of Guardiola’s disciples and former assistants, Enzo Maresca, in the coming days.
‘Football for me is not complex’
In that sense, Ancelotti is something of an anomaly in the era of footballing philosophers and tormented tacticians. He is not wedded to one single way of doing things. He was once, many, many years ago at Parma, when he felt the 4-4-2 he had learned under Sacchi was sacred, but turning down the chance to sign Roberto Baggio made him see the error of his ways.
Consequently, he has “never cultivated an ideology, like Guardilismo or Sarrismo”, meaning he doesn’t obsess, and he doesn’t stress.
“Football is my passion but I try to manage things in the simplest way possible,” he recently told Valdano. “Football for me is not complex, it’s simple, even in strategy. Creativity is needed to attack; to defend, you need organisation. I can teach you more about the second one, but you don’t teach creativity.”
Only ‘two types of players’
Consequently, his attacking players are afforded a level of freedom that is the antithesis to the micro-management and automatism now prevalent in the modern game. But Ancelotti doesn’t care.
“I would be an idiot if, with a striker like Vinicius, who has a scooter under his feet, I didn’t focus on the counter-attack,” he argued in an interview with the Corriere dello Sport. “If I have (Luka) Modric and (Toni) Kroos, I can’t expect to press high.
“And I’ll give you one last example: if I have (Cristiano) Ronaldo in front of me, I study how to get the ball to him often. I don’t ask him to tire himself out by tracking back. The same with Ibra (Zlatan Ibrahimovic). Essentially, there are two types of players: those who make the difference and those who have to run.”
‘Big bear’
Such thinking sounds archaic in the current climate, at the very least, overly simplistic. And yet it works. Ancelotti is adored by nearly every single player that’s ever played under him – perhaps because he was a world-class talent himself back in the day, a key member of Sacchi’s era-defining and game-changing AC Milan.
But there’s clearly more to it than shared experiences at the highest level. Ancelotti is renowned by rival coaches for his humility, humour and warm personality, and it’s telling that Vinicius Jr and Toni Kroos both say that they just like talking to the Italian (and not even about football), while Cristiano Ronaldo famously compared him to a big cuddly bear.
“He’s so nice, so sensitive,” the Portuguese told ESPN. “I wish every player could have the opportunity to work with him because he is a fantastic person, a fantastic coach and I miss him a lot, because we won many trophies together.”
And that’s the thing, while Ancelotti’s coaching acumen often goes unrecognised – and is even sometimes ridiculed – his record is remarkable.
He’s the only man in history to have won all five of Europe’s ‘big’ leagues (Serie A, Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and La Liga), while he’s won a record four Champions Leagues as a coach. On Saturday, he’s expected to claim a fifth. When it comes to major titles, nobody else comes close.
“Both Pep and Sir Alex (Ferguson) are a part of history, but let’s look at what Ancelotti has achieved,” Ruud Gullit recently argued. “He’s the king of kings, better than anyone else.”
‘Unnoticed’ tactical genius
There is, of course, a very valid argument to be made that Ancelotti should only be considered the “perfect big-club coach”, as Clarence Seedorf put it, rather than the greatest of all time because he didn’t pull off something akin to the miracle Ferguson oversaw at Aberdeen. Nor has he rebuilt a club in the same way as the Scot, who put Manchester United back on their pedestal.
There’s also the fact that while he’s repeatedly outwitted Guardiola, he hasn’t had the same influence on his peers as Pep. However, the idea that he isn’t an exceptional coach is a utterly ridiculous.
Ancelotti immediately saw “something of Kaka” in Jude Bellingham so he pushed him further forward. Ask the Englishman why he’s “exploded” at Madrid this season and he’ll tell you it’s all down to the “freedom” he’s been afforded by his coach.
Ancelotti also transformed Andrea Pirlo into one of the finest deep-lying playmakers the game has ever seen (“He changed my career!”), while he effectively converted Ronaldo into a centre-forward without the Portuguese even knowing it, by tweaking his formation without the ball to free Madrid’s all-time leading goal-scorer of any defensive duties.
He is also far more meticulous than the press and the public give him credit for, which explains why he’s repeatedly got the better of more celebrated coaching influencers with surprising strategies or perfectly-time substitutions.
As Kroos said on Amazon Prime Video, “He has a tactical plan to best deal with every opponent and this is the side of the coin that often goes unnoticed.”
League of his own
At the end of the day, though, Ancelotti has never really been interested in plaudits. He appears unconcerned by his impact. He’s not trying to change the game. He doesn’t pursue perfection; he simply chases success.
“Victories and titles are the unit of measurement of the coach’s work,” he told the Corriere. “Profit influences time and careers; but it is like this in all sectors. It is clear that by playing well it is easier to obtain results, but I enjoy it when I win. In any case, I don’t fit into any subcategory.”
And he’s right. Though he’s far too humble to say it, he’s actually in a league all of his own – and, deep down, he knows it too.
At the end of that conversation with Sacchi, his former mentor joked that his old Milan side would beat Ancelotti’s Madrid. The pupil-turned-master paused as if giving the hypothetical heavyweight showdown serious thought before quipping, “I suppose it would depend on whether I’m playing for Milan or coaching Real…”
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