League Focus: Serie A's Midfield Evolution

Italian football is facing a crisis that started at the end of the 90s. After reaching 9 Champions League finals in 10 years as of the 1988/89 season, the big clubs haven't dominated as they had before. Tactics have always been the key for Italian teams to win all over Europe. However, thanks to more and better organized domestic football systems, European rivals from Spain, England and Germany could afford to hire better players and coaches, and to build teams playing a modern style of football, overcoming Italian "superpowers".

English football in particular evolved from a classic use of the flanks, to a more organized midfield based on high tempo and all-round midfielders able to play in different roles. A great improvement came also from letting foreign coaches in, such as Wenger, Ranieri, Houllier and then Benitez, Mourinho, Mancini and Ancelotti.

Since the short Spanish-German rule that followed the Italian reign, English clubs have been the only threat to Barcelona's domination, with 6 teams playing in 5 consecutive finals. Also, the huge gap between the two teams topping La Liga and the rest of the Spanish pack suggest that, on average, Premier League teams are better equipped then them.

So since the start of the century, football had its best development in Barcelona and all over England. In the meantime, Milan kept alive its European tradition, and Inter achieved an historic Champions League victory but smaller teams never went too far in European Cups.

And so came the 2011-2012 season, with a lot of tactical surprises.

After the success of Mazzarri's system at Napoli, a bunch of coaches re-discovered the three-man defence, with the chance of having a player to add to the midfield and win the battle in that zone of the park. Some teams now make regular use of 5 men in the middle of the pitch, so opponents sometimes do the same just to adapt and match the line-up.

But what really changed the Italian midfield was the adoption of the English system, with more complete players, a higher tempo and more aggression as well. Most of the teams dropped the single trequartista, which was a key element of Italian football in the late 90s and early 2000s. Some moved abroad (Pastore, Kakà) and some had to change role (Giovinco, Jovetic, Totti). Few teams kept a true trequartista, like Cagliari, Palermo or Lazio, but top clubs that once had Kakà, Rui Costa or Zidane, are now going in a different direction. Inter Milan, who still have Sneijder, are struggling to make him blend back into the team after achieving some good results with a solid 4-4-2.

Considering only true midfielders, and leaving out roles as trequartista, winger or false forwards (e.g. Hernanes, Jankovic and Jovetic) as they are more likely to score, the stats highlight the change of system by the number of goals scored by midfielders in the 2011/2012 season. The top-ten scorers' Goals per Match ratio increased from the average of 0.17 to 0.22, with an impressive 38% improvement. Some of the listed players are also their teams' best contributors, like Rigoni (Novara) and Lodi (Catania, with Almiron coming second).

*In charge of Penalties and/or Direct Free Kicks

Last year Milan's top scorers were Ibrahimovic, Pato and Robinho all with 14 goals, while this season Boateng and Nocerino scored more than their attacking mates, as the evolution of the Milan midfield brought more runs from deep and less assistance to the strikers. Title contenders Juventus have their playing style based on great effort from all of the midfield, and runs from Marchisio, Giaccherini or Vidal.

Looking at the other end of the table, in previous seasons teams fighting to avoid relegation used to rely on a tight defence and good strikers, able to convert the few chances they had to score. This season Rigoni and Lodi are leading Novara and Catania, achieving more than forwards, while Giacomazzi and Grossmuller had been Lecce's top scorers for quite a long time before Di Michele’s return from injury.

So it has been shrewd of the Italian coaches to have a good look at the Premier League to tweak tactics and "update" Italian football in the midfield pack. The future of the Serie A looks darker as financially Italian teams are too weak to compete with rivals from European powers, but still the creativity and intuition of Italian coaches are able to fill the gap. Will that be enough to make Italian football shine again? As two English teams are facing Italian ones in the Champions League knockout stage, it should only be a matter of time before we know the answer.