Well, for the first time in a while, I’m starting to associate it with entertainment. Yes, the Italian league appears to be breaking free from the constraints of days gone by and reinventing itself as the most entertaining league in Europe.
Gone are the 0-0 draws between the likes of AC Milan and Parma that used to blight Channel 4’s Italian football coverage on a Sunday morning. Now AC Milan and Udinese are fighting out 4-4 draws. Juventus are losing 4-1 at home to Parma.
The likes of Hernanes, Edinson Cavani and Javier Pastore are lighting up the league with their flair and creativity. Oh, and Milos Krasic too. The Croatian has been one of the stars of the season with his old fashioned wing play bringing about a resurgence in Juventus’ fortunes.
But it is the form of Hernanes and Pastore which is most interesting, as they signal the rebirth of the traditional playmaker. The number 10, the player who puts his foot on the ball and plays the passes through for the forwards and wingers. The Riquelme player. Such a player has gone into hiding on the continent in recent times, with players such as Cesc Fabregas the exception rather than the rule in European formations.
But Pastore and Hernanes show that there are still players who can play the playmaker role off the central strikers and draw opposition defenders out of position. And it is so important because these are the players who make the game entertaining. Two teams with fixed positions in which the game descends largely into personal duels are generally less surprising, less entertaining and less creative. The playmaker draws the opposition out of position, asking questions of defenders that they are less comfortable asking. They require the opposition to predict the unpredictable.
The trend has spread around the league. At Napoli Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik play behind Cavani, with Hamsik playing the role of playmaker. At Udinese Alexis Sanchez roams behind the forwards in a free role for Francesco Guidolin’s free scoring side, though he is not the typical trequartista. And Juventus are thriving with Krasic on the wing and Alberto Aquilani taking on the role of the playmaker. The Bianconeri have gone goal crazy this season under new boss Luigi del Neri.
Gone are the days of the dull 0-0. Even the 0-0 or 1-0 results are less dull than they once were; Roma’s stunning 1-0 win at AC Milan last month was a case in point. And there are a number of clubs in with a chance of winning the league, with the likes of Napoli, Juventus, Roma and Palermo all chasing AC Milan, with champions Inter not far behind. The latter have even managed to become considerably more entertaining under Leonardo, with 12 goals in four games under the Brazilian, compared to 20 in 15 under predecessor Benitez.
And for this resurgence in Italian football entertainment, we must thank the entertainers, and those who let them entertain, the managers. With the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Giovanni Trapattoni and Luciano Spaletti overseas, a new breed of manager is coming to the fore in Serie A. The Luigi Del Neri and Massimon Allegris are by inclination more attacking, and with them have come the willingness to afford wingers and playmakers the freedom that they would never be given under a more traditional Italian coach like Capello. It is thanks to the new swathe of coaches in the league that the idea of sitting down to watch a Serie A game is not met with a shrug, possibly a sinking of the heart, but with the kind of excitement usually reserved for the English and Spanish leagues.
