“The game is decided by players,” Allegri continues. “I agree with other trainers that the team has to have the organisation, and tactics, but it is important that the individual plays well.” Allegri worries that Serie A and some coaches have become too strangled by tactics. “We need to change the mentality in Italy,” he argues. “We have thrown completely away our old playing style. We need to connect the old style of trainer and the new style. In Italy, we lost this. In Coverciano [Italy’s coaching school outside Florence] the culture should be changed.”
It’s about hearts and minds, not filling heads with too many confusing tactical commands. Allegri does drill his players hard, as Juventus’ often impenetrable shape out of possession showed, but he keeps returning to players as sentient creatures, not robots. “A coach should not create anxiety for players,” he continues. “If you start only from your ideas, your credo, and you don’t start from the quality of the human material you have in your hands, I consider that a big mistake.”