Legendary football manager Arrigo Sacchi has named Liverpool star Mohamed Salah as the one player in the modern game he would have enjoyed to coach.
Sacchi's coaching career ended in 2001 at Parma, with the Italian best remembered for revolutionising football during his first stint as manager of AC Milan. During that four-year period, he guided the Serie A giants to domestic glory and back-to-back European Cups.
Many credit the 76-year-old as one of the pioneers for pressing, a concept Jurgen Klopp has grown to be associated with in today's game.
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“Sacchi completely changed how we think about football,” Liverpool boss Klopp told the Daily Telegraph in 2020. “He is one of the most influential coaches in the history of the game and a complete game-changer for me. Because of him we had to judge the size of the pitch in a new way. I am sure you remember playing with man-marking tactics where you pretty much followed the opponent you were marking to the toilet.
“The pitch always felt incredibly big. Nobody played a high line because many teams played the libero. Before him I was told who to mark and that was it. Too often the team with the better individuals won the game because it was all one-versus-one challenges all over the pitch, so if the other player was better than you, how could you win?”
Such comments make clear how Sacchi is held in high regard - just as Salah is for his achievements as a Liverpool player. And the former Italy boss has become the latest individual to praise the Egyptian after being asked by La Gazzetta dello Sport which individual he would like to be in charge of if he was still managing today.
"He is not an absolute star, but... I’d go for a player who knows the work ethic, without excesses of protagonism and functional to my ideas,” he said.
“I’ve always looked at the head before feet. Feet can be fixed with training, but not the head. I like Liverpool strikers for the way they play. They run, work for the team and attack the spaces. I’d pick Salah, who may not be an absolute star, but is perfect for how I see strikers.”
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