Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has credited France legend Zinedine Zidane with the Blues' scintillating start to the Barclays Premier League season.
Ancelotti's side have recorded five comfortable wins, scoring 21 goals and conceding just one, and already look tough to stop as they bid to defend their title.
But Ancelotti, who also played for 18 years before becoming a coach, claims that Chelsea's powerful attacking style of play comes from his time when he coached Zidane at Juventus.
The Italian says he had to abandon his usual tactics and adopt a diamond formation, typicially 4-1-2-1-2, that would give Zidane the freedom to show what he could do.
'Before, when I started to train, I had an identity which I put on my teams,' said Ancelotti said.
'I didn't look at the characteristics of my players. I wanted to play 4-4-2 for the first two years. After that, I changed my ideas. It changed at Juventus – Zidane didn't want to play on the left, but in the centre, so I changed my formation for my players.
'There is not a winning shape: you can play 4-4-2, 4-3-1-2. Now I look at the skills and characteristics of my players and put the right shape in the team for them.'
Having won two Champions League titles with AC Milan, Ancelotti decided to impose the diamond midfield formation to Chelsea, but despite that being successful for a period returned to the 4-3-3 system.
Zinedine Zidane changed Ancelotti's formation plans at Juventus
That was introduced by Jose Mourinho when he was manager at Stamford Bridge five years earlier but Ancelotti uses it with attack more in mind rather than defensively.
Ancelotti added: We use possession more, and attack more. When we attack, my idea is to give the players some information but they have to use their skill, mentality and personality. They have free play for the players in front. Defensively, it's different. They need discipline.'
myLot User Profile
No comments:
Post a Comment