By Ralph El Tawil | Staff Writer
The Serie A couldn’t rival the other top European domestic football leagues for the last decade; however, this season we are witnessing a great comeback to the Italian giant. Since Inter Milan’s 2010 Champions League title, no Italian team managed to reach the final of the world’s most prestigious club tournament but Juventus in 2015 and 2017. In the meantime, locally, and for the last 11 Serie A seasons, ‘la Vecchia Signora’ dominated the league bagging 9 consecutive titles from seasons 11/12 to 19/20. In this light, the football fandom preferred watching the English, Spanish and German leagues as they would exhibit much more intensity and competitiveness. Many factors contributed to the downfall of the Italian league across the last decade.
The stagnation of football tactics and their role in the development Italian football:
Arguably the issue that affected Italian football the most is the whole philosophy of managers translated in game play. Managers of the Serie A would opt for the traditional ‘catenaccio tactic’ where the whole team defends all along the game relying on counter attacking and setplays: corners, freekicks, penalties. Such mentality was being wiped off in the Spanish and German league who embraced an aggressive attacking style of football that proved its success in domestic leagues as well as in the Champions league, while the Italian league’s rhythm remained low. Therefore, no team in Italy efficiently adopted the attacking style but Juventus, and thus the odds for winning the league and challenging in the UCL were most often in favor of the Old Lady. Furthermore, the youth sector crisis in Italian football post 2006 World Cup had its say. As youth teams did not provide the Serie A with enough consistent players, the highly praised talents would flop a season or two after their debut. It was becoming evident that Italian teams which played European football would eventually find it difficult to even surpass modest European teams for they neither have the amount of talent nor have mastered an attacking style of football. These factors culminated in international setbacks for Italy’s national team with back-to-back crashes from the group stage of the World Cup in 2010 and 2014 as well as the biggest setback in Italy’s football History: the failure to qualify to the 2018 World Cup. All these events stimulated Italian football with Italian managers such as Sarri, Gasperini, De Zerbi and many more attacking football rather than parking the bus. With the return of Antonio Conte to the Serie A managing Inter Milan and Sarri (Juventus) after a one-year spent at Chelsea, the Covid-19 interrupted the 2019/2020 season. It displayed further tactical shifts in favor of attack with Atalanta and AC Milan managed by Gasperini and Pioli respectively along with balanced managers such as Gattuso, Inzaghi and Fonseca. Henceforward, the 2020-21 season demonstrated the revival of the Italian Serie A with further tactical depth, more emerging young Italian talents and a high level of competition ending with Inter Milan’s title success after 9 seasons of Juventus’ dominance. Moreover, AC Milan qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 7 seasons. This massive boost in the intensity of play, tactical versatility and regain of confidence culminated in the successive campaign of the Italian national team in the European championship. The team led by Mancini and composed of mainly young and veteran Serie A players adopted a highly attacking rhythm of play, the most unconventional style to the 4 times world champions renowned as the masters of defence. Ultimately, and for the past 10 rounds, the 2021-22 season of Italian Serie A is living up to the expectations following the national team’s European success, through the managerial changes: the departure of Conte, Gattuso, and Pirlo and the comeback of Mourinho, Sarri and Spalletti accompanied by an even higher competition for the domestic title.
Statistically, the top four UCL qualifying spots in the Serie A this season are roughly similar for 7 teams: Allegri’s Juventus, Gasperini’s Atalanta, Inzaghi’s Inter Milan, Pioli’s AC Milan, Mourinho’s Roma, Sarri’s Lazio, and Spalletti’s Napoli. Moreover, the Serie A had the highest goals and assists per game ratio in the top 5 leagues for the 2020-21 season and is expected to offer the same this season. The 2021-22 season’s prospects are the highest in terms of competitiveness in Italian football since 2011-12. Ultimately, the Italian Serie A deserves more attention from the football fandom, especially the new generation of fans for it has and is delivering highly entertaining and quality football.