Perhaps we have to go back to Thiago Motta’s 2-7-2 system to explain Swiss football at this European Championship. In November 2018, Motta, who had ended his playing career the previous summer and started as coach of the U19s at Paris Saint-Germain, announced Gazzetta dello Sport an interview that would change the course of his career. Some say today that it also changed football itself.
In the interview, Motta explained that he wanted to break down the tactical systems, usually written down with the number of field players per chain, such as 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, and turn them into a so-called 2-7-2. Not only did he include the goalkeeper, he also arranged the players not even from back to front as usual, but from right to left: two wingers on the left, seven in the middle of the field, two wingers on the right. But this new idea failed miserably at first. Motta, a Brazilian-Catalan-Italian midfielder predestined for a role as a visionary coach, was sacked at his first professional positions in Genoa and La Spezia.
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His 2-7-2 became a laughing stock in public until he found a new home in Bologna, where he was given a little more time to develop his game ideas – and Motta made his breakthrough, the consequences of which can be felt far beyond Emilia-Romagna. Including at this European Championship.
Nine players from the fifth-placed team in Serie A have travelled to the European Championships with their national teams. The Bologna Boys include some footballers who fly somewhat under the radar, such as the 19-year-old Pole Kacper Urbanski, the Danish full-back Victor Kristiansen and the Austrian Stefan Posch. All three have important roles in their national teams, the only exception being striker Joshua Zirkzee, who is left on the bench by Dutch coach Ronald Koeman.
However, the more prominent figures through which one can tell the story of the influence of Bologna and thus of Thiago Motta can be found in the first round of 16 pairing, when Switzerland meets Italy in Berlin on Saturday evening.
Motta’s system can only be copied to a limited extent for national teams, but some principles are still valuable
The importance of Michel Aebischer, Remo Freuler and Dan Ndoye for Switzerland can be seen quite simply from the fact that they have been directly responsible for all the goals that coach Murat Yakin’s team has scored in the tournament so far: Xherdan Shaqiri (against Scotland) and Breel Embolo (against Hungary) scored after mistakes by the opposition – otherwise a foot from Bologna was always directly involved. Overall, FC Bologna, together with FC Barcelona, is the club that has been jointly responsible for the most goals at the European Championships so far, namely six.
Anyone who starts looking for traces of a Motta system in Switzerland will not find any in the 270 minutes of play. The so-called relationism that the Italian coach uses aims to specifically condense spaces in the field in order to create numerical superiority, lure the opponent into traps and then switch. The whole thing is extremely risky as a side effect, however, and only works after countless training sessions – which is why it is hardly suitable for national teams. The Swiss coach Yakin also comes from a fundamentally different school of coaching, although he appreciates what colleagues like Motta achieve.
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“It is a relief for me because I do not have to look for players,” Yakin said before the tournament in an interview with the portal WatsonThe key players Manuel Akanji (Manchester City) and Granit Xhaka (Bayer Leverkusen) also have to play a much more pragmatic style of football for the Swiss than they do at club level: Switzerland had an average of 45.5 percent possession in the preliminary round, which is something that people in Manchester, Bologna and Leverkusen just smile wearily at.
However, the concepts of club coaches such as Motta, Pep Guardiola and Xabi Alonso are so pervasive that their players dictate the way with small decisions on the field. In the case of the Swiss, this is even clearer than anywhere else: the switch to a three-man defense a few months before the start of the tournament was apparently an initiative of captain Xhaka, who, according to media reports, pushed this system in discussions with Yakin. Freuler, Aebischer, Ndoye and the Leverkusen player himself benefit from this because they are no longer strictly tied to their positions, but enjoy more freedom: this is exactly the original basic idea that Motta wanted to develop with his 2-7-2.
And of course Italy and coach Luciano Spalletti are also benefiting from their innovative FC. When central defenders Francesco Acerbi and Giorgio Scalvini were injured before the tournament, Riccardo Calafiori came in and became one of the discoveries of the tournament with his courageous defensive and build-up style – clearly Motta’s style. Small flaw: He will miss the match against Switzerland due to a yellow card suspension. Whatever the outcome of the round of 16 on Saturday, one thing is certain: Bologna is one of the tournament’s big winners. However, it is also the last revival of a special team that will not continue in this form: numerous players will leave the club – and Motta has already signed with Juventus Turin.