Max Allegri, the serial winner of Serie A titles, is reflecting on the difference between “natural” coaches like himself, those with an instinctive feel for players, in contrast to the more “manufactured” coaches, those overly obsessed with tactical dogma. Allegri draws on his passion for horse racing. He understands thoroughbreds, footballing and racing.
During a fascinating hour’s conversation over Zoom, conducted in English, the charismatic former AC Milan and Juventus coach outlines his desire to manage in the Premier League, his constant analysing of English clubs and his admiration for the work of Jürgen Klopp and José Mourinho. He also speaks at length about bringing the best out of players by working them hard but understanding their individual human traits.
“I can see from how a player is running how he feels,” Allegri starts. “Body language tells you a lot. The same thing when you go to the paddock before a race and you see the horses moving. If you understand horses you can see who’s feeling best. I have this opinion about the similarity of horses and people. Racehorses are athletes as well, with the disadvantage that they can’t speak to you! So you have to read the body language.”
Allegri reads the body language of his players. “The trainer has to be a psychologist,” he continues. “80 per cent is psychology, 20 per cent is tactics. We need to look in players’ heads because they’re young, they’re ‘children’. We need to speak to them every day, know everything about them, understand their problems. The problems of an 18-year-old boy are different from a veteran. When the trainer has to put a player on the bench, it’s important the player has faith in the trainer. The first quality for a coach is psychology.”
A decent midfield player with clubs like his home-town Livorno and Cagliari with a brief spell at Napoli, Allegri rose through the coaching ranks to become one of the most respected managers around. Now 53, he paid his coaching dues at smaller clubs, beginning in the fourth tier with Aglianese then a division up with another Tuscan club, Grossetto. He took Sassuolo into Serie B for the first time in 2008, then worked under Massimo Cellini at Cagliari before winning Serie A with AC Milan in 2011.
On joining Juventus in 2014, Allegri overcame initial concern amongst fans mourning the departure of their beloved Antonio Conte. Allegri’s ability to evolve sides was seen again, toughening them physically and mentally, understanding his players and empowering them to take responsibility. Under Allegri, Juventus won five Scudettos, and reached two Champions League finals (losing to Barcelona in 2015 and Real Madrid in 2017).
He is not a strict adherent to any tactical regimen, taking Juventus from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3, consistently coaxing good performances from his players. Allegri made Mario Mandzukic even more effective at Juventus by getting the Croatian centre forward to start on the left more from the 2016/17 season, working over opposing full backs, attacking from there. Alvaro Morata, Paul Pogba and Miralem Pjanic all improved under Allegri at Juventus.
“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.”
The psychological strength of players underpinned their success. “I had a lot of strong players, with strong mentality,” he adds, “defenders like [Giorgio] Chiellini and [Alessandro] Nesta, midfielders like [Gennaro] Gattuso and [Clarence] Seedorf and strikers like [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [Cristiano] Ronaldo.
“Ronaldo is the top player for mentality. Ronaldo has a different head to everyone. He’s won five Ballon d’Ors, five Champions Leagues and one European Championship for Portugal, and that is so difficult, and it’s always him being the difference. Every year he has a new objective.”
Ronaldo is described by Allegri as having a “different head to everyone else”
DANIELE BADOLATO/JUVENTUS FC VIA GETTY IMAGES
Allegri, too, has a new objective. “I’m improving my English!” he laughs. “I am studying!” As well as language, he’s also studying different leagues, different clubs, trying to understand their identity. “The important thing is every country has its own history,” Allegri says, referring to their footballing ethos. “England is different from Italy, which is different from Spain, from Germany. It’s difficult to change the history of the country.
“It’s difficult to change the history of the club. For example, Manchester United played for 50 years the same style. When [Louis] Van Gaal arrived, he had a different mentality. Van Gaal wants to play with possession. But Manchester United are ‘get in the box, attack, attack, cross, cross’.
“Arsenal are different to United. In Italy, the same, Juventus different to Milan. The history of Juventus was every year with one big player for the team, [Zinédine] Zidane, [Alessandro] Del Piero, [Omar] Sivori, [Michel] Platini with other players to work every day hard [alongside]. In Milan it is different.” He thinks back to their time under Silvio Berlusconi until 2017 and their accumulation of names. “Berlusconi has a different mentality, it’s important to arrive in the Champions League, to win the Champions League with more stars.”
Allegri has this ability to assimilate a club’s philosophy. “I speak from experience. When I was in Milan I understood immediately what they do, their history. Milan never played with three defenders, always four. In Juventus it is a lot different, three or four.”
But coaches can change a club’s DNA. I mention Tottenham Hotspur and the work of Mourinho, flipping the club’s philosophy. Allegri nods. “In Tottenham, Mourinho has the balance with the pragmatic and the technical. Because Tottenham are a big team, with big players, and Mourinho is about the strategic. The trainer must respect the quality of his players. Mourinho understands his players. He’s doing a big work at Tottenham.”
Coaches like Pep Guardiola can also impose philosophies. “Manchester City don’t have a big history like United,” Allegri responds, “so Guardiola can work with a ‘virgin’ club and has the possibility to work his own way.
“For me, English football is improving now because there are a lot of foreign trainers. There are more tactics compared to ten years ago. England now is more sophisticated, and more tactical, but is also respecting the tradition of English football. It’s a good balance of the spirit of English football and the new quality and new tactical approach of the new coaches.
“Liverpool with Bayern Munich are the best two teams in Europe. Klopp is doing such great work because Liverpool has the right balance. They defend very hard, when Klopp has all the players at his disposal, Virgil Van Dijk and the right defender [Trent Alexander-Arnold]. Liverpool are the best in counter attack, they are best when they defend, and they have the quality of players who are the best. Every year they improve the team. Liverpool have players who are very fast, technical, are physically stronger, and they have character. To win the trophies, we need to have character, the technical, the tactical, and the physical. And all Liverpool players work very hard, every match. Liverpool have the right mentality.”
He similarly sees a great attitude in Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United. “I saw their game against Arsenal,” Allegri recalls. “Leeds were running strong, and playing with a big intensity. Because they don’t have the top players they like to play as a team, very compact, man-to-man, one-to-one, and they run fast. To do this, we need to work every day very hard. Very hard! I always say that in football running is not mandatory but it helps!”
He does look at the Premier League and express concern about those countries with 20-team divisions like England, Italy, Spain and France. “Uefa has to say that all the countries have to play 18 teams,” Allegri argues. “Only like this do we improve the football. There are too many games, less quality. When I spoke with Guardiola or Klopp, I agree with them because they play every season 60 games!”
He’s clearly very up to speed with English football. Even before leaving Juventus in 2019, Allegri was being linked with English clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. “Sure! I would like to experience the Premier League. In Italy, I was in Milan four years. Five years in Juventus. Now I expect [to work again] in Italy, but it is difficult, or in England.”
Allegri won five Scudettos with Juventus
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He’d fit in. He’s charismatic, successful, and with a life that does not begin and end with football. “I have my girlfriend!” Allegri says of the actress and singer Ambra Angiolini. “She likes opera! I go with her! But I do like it. When I was in London I went with my girlfriend to
Lion King the musical and to the opera. The last time we went to La Scala in Milan, we saw
Aida. Verdi! I go because of my girlfriend!
“My passion is horses! That’s the truth. I cannot start a friendship lying to you! I follow my girlfriend going to the opera, to La Scala, to the theatre but I love racing, horses! My friend is Frankie Dettori! And Andrea Atzeni [the Sardinian rider].”
Allegri clearly loves life. His grandfather always told him that “fantasy”, effectively meaning enjoyment, was key to work. “In this job, we want ‘fantasy’, we need to be happy when we work. We need to stay concentrated with work, work every day very hard. In football, it is important to win. Because when we win, we are happy for one hour, two hours. When we lose, I think about it a lot. To improve we need to think about the bad things. But I’m not a trainer that thinks all 24 hours every day about football. No! It is important to have a normal life, to rest. It is impossible to think 24 hours [about] football. We’d go crazy!” Humans, not robots.
But we're definitely not at the crossroads with Pirlo yet.
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