Category: FM Tactics
-
Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – The Later Arsenal Years
In 1989, directors Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron put together one of the most ambitious historical films in history, “La Révolution Française”. It was an enormous multi-cultural production, made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The film was split into two parts, “Les Années Lumière” (translated for the English version as…
-
Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – The Early Arsenal Years
In pondering how to start this article, I wondered how many directors made acquaintance with their next manager whilst playing charades at a party. Can you imagine Mourinho playing Pictionary at Abramovich’s or Sacchi singing home karaoke with Berlusconi? Actually, I can picture that last one. Of course, David Dein didn’t meet Wenger at his…
-
Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – The Monaco Era
When you look at Arsène Wenger’s time at AS Monaco, particularly if you’re familiar with what he’d later do at Arsenal, there’s an unmistakable feeling of having been there before. They say “history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”; at times it could be seen as melancholic humans looking back and hoping to find…
-
Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – Introduction
A few months ago, (I‘ve mentioned this before) I started re-reading one of my all-time favourite books, Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid. I had revisited some of my favourite chapters before, but this was the first time I embarked on a complete re-read. Adding to it, it was my first time reading the updated edition, meaning…
-
The Dutchman’s Flying Eagles – When Leo Beenhakker took Mexican football by storm
As a result of a process that started somewhere during the mid-to-late 80s, the European game has become the top of the football pyramid. It has been for a while now. Anyone who’s someone plays their trade in one of Europe’s top five leagues; anyone who doesn’t, wants to. For the most part, at least.…
-
The Italian Roles: The Trequartista
Since this Italian Month started, we have moving forwards through the tactics blackboards of il Calcio Italiano. We commenced at the back, talking about the Libero, its defensive excellence and its free runs. We then moved to the defensive third and discussed the Regista, its artistry with the ball and its playmaking creativity. And lastly, we…
-
The Italian Roles: The Mezzala
Il Calcio Italiano is a game of great players, great teams and great myths. It is also a game of great language. As Sam Griswold points out in his article for These Football Times, it’s not a game of positions and passes but of ruoli(roles) and dialogo (literally to dialogue, in football to pass). It’s a language worthy of the…
-
The Italian Roles: The Regista
Last time around we discussed the role of the Libero, a player who was made free from the chains of Catenaccio to roam the pitch both in defence and in attack, to close down his opponents and create for his teammates. However, there is another role in the Italian game with the same freedom in…
-
The Italian Roles: The Libero
The Italian game, for all of its glory and importance, is also one of great contradictions. Less than 20 years after Vittorio Pozzo’s double-world-cup-winning side aimed to become the epitome of muscular, warrior-like football, Gianni Brera, the most influential Italian sports journalist ever, argued that Italians were physically weaker than their rivals, and should look…
-
Il calcio italiano and it’s legacy – The Italian Roles
As recent events have shown, football is the sport of the people. Not only regarding popularity but also the way in which we construct our identity, the values we hold, the memories we build and the communities we’re part of. None of that is negotiable, none of that can be bought. As someone said, the…
Rock's End FM 