Lippi's keys to success

SPECIAL INTERVIEW:
"A coach doesn't have to be liked – the most important thing is that the players have secure leadership." UEFA Magazine's Simon Hart talks to the man who led the Azzurri to their fourth World Cup - Marcello Lippi...

It takes something special to leave Marcello Lippi lost for words but when he casts his mind back to 9 July, expressing how it felt to lead Italy to FIFA World Cup glory does not come easily. "The feeling when you win the World Cup is just extraordinary, it is not something you can describe in words," he said. Fortunately, there is an image of Lippi on the confetti-strewn pitch at Berlin's Olympic Stadium which does the job for him. "It is a picture of me smoking a cigar and looking at the cup," he explained with a smile.

That king-of-the-world moment is now four months old and Lippi is in the midst of a sabbatical from football. The 58-year-old had meant to take a break after leaving Juventus in 2004 but then "the national team called and you can't turn that down. It was a fantastic opportunity and experience but now I am going to do what I wanted to do two years ago – to stop for five or six months".

Lippi's love of football means he should be lured back to work before long. "I would like to start working again next year," he said. "I would like a few more years' work, either in Italy or abroad." For now, though, he is happy to reflect on a coaching career which has touched the highest peaks: UEFA Champions League glory with Juventus and now the world crown with Italy. Addressing the 16th UEFA Course for Coach Educators at the Italian Football Federation's (FIGC) technical centre in Coverciano recently, Lippi looked back on last summer and cited Italy's tactical versality as a key factor in their success. "You have to train your players to play in two or three different ways – that is what makes a team really capable of doing things."

Italy's 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic in their decisive final group match provided a case in point. "The Czechs play with one striker and lots of midfield players. I thought, 'Why should I give them an advantage?' So we played differently, with only one striker to balance it out. We knew if we beat them we would win the group and avoid playing Brazil, which was everyone's major concern."

Lippi faced a telling test of his tactical acumen in the World Cup final against a France side the Azzurri eventually overcame on penalties. "We were better in the first half and played really well. But they got on top in the second half, their technique and organisation took over." Italy's semi-final against Germany had taken its toll. "Some of our players were not at their best. We'd played 120 minutes against Germany, don't forget, and it had taken a lot out of them both psychologically and physically."

Lippi, who identifies a general trend away from pressing football towards "greater ball possession", found a solution by replacing Francesco Totti with Daniele De Rossi and Simone Perrotta with Vincenzo Iaquinta. "We had problems in midfield so I brought De Rossi in, while Iaquinta came in to maintain a presence in attack. From then we weren't in too much danger although we didn't create much ourselves either."

Lippi's long career, which began at lowly Pontedera in 1985 and has taken in ten different clubs, has taught him that for any coach "it is the quality of players that counts". Man-management is also crucial, however. He cites the example of Fulvio Bernardini, his coach at Sampdoria in the 1970s who "had a great personality, but he did not try to dominate others" and says this quality is more important than ever.

"We are talking about players who have amazing contracts and who in a couple of years are made for life. It becomes even more difficult when you have eight, nine different players from different countries. A coach must impose his own culture but not nullify the qualities of his men. He doesn't have to be liked – the most important thing is that the players have secure leadership." With these words in mind, it is interesting to hear about Lippi's handling of Francesco Totti, the Italy playmaker who faced a fight to be fit for the finals after breaking his ankle.

"I really wanted him to get the feeling I believed in him because I knew how determined he was. Nobody else could have played between midfield and attack better than him and I think the whole squad believed this too although objectively speaking he was not 100 per cent." Fortunately for Lippi, the gamble – like so many decisions he took last summer - paid off. And the result, in his words, was "the greatest satisfaction any player or coach can have".

Courtesy of UEFA.com Magazine.