Insights on Evolving Football Tactics

That someone tells me where I have to pass the ball, I—

I-I-I didn’t understand it. The first time I started to see

that change— that

football was changing a bit, with so much information, with

so much structure, with so much

robotization,

in the good sense of the word, for the player and making him understand so many

things, was with Antonio Conte. For me, even at first, it was surprising and

hard to understand because—

That someone tells me where I have to pass the ball, I—

I-I-I didn’t understand it, because no one had ever told me that.

One day I’ll remember for the rest of my life, we were in LA

at training camp and I hadn’t— we’d only known each other

for ten days.

The full-back passes me the ball, first he gives it to Diego Costa, alone

against the goalkeeper, and he scores. He finished training and said:

“No!” He has

started shouting, and I said, "Why not?"

He scored. He says no, that football isn't this,

that we have to do this,

this, this, this. And I said, "Wow, this is changing, right?" And

I really learned so much, it made me think, it also made me

pay closer attention to detail,

to be more curious and ask more

questions. That was when I started to see, ten

years ago,

th-that football was changing a little.