For decades, a rather myopic and weak narrative has taken hold in Italy, placing Johan Cruijff and Arrigo Sacchi within the same galaxy—that of so-called Total Football. This comparison is not entirely unfounded nor completely fabricated: while Cruijff’s connection to the Dutch revolution needs no explanation, it is worth remembering that Sacchi spent his formative years working for his family business while taking notes and studying the “Clockwork Orange” of Rinus Michels, along with other teams that embodied the total football ethos of the 1970s. In particular, he was influenced by three managerial masterminds: Ernst Happel, Guy Thys, and Raymond Goethals.

An Austrian nomad with a steely gaze and rough demeanor, a melancholic Belgian songwriter who never made it (the dark side of Jacques Brel), and an anarchist-looking Belgian with a sharp tongue—Happel, Thys, and Goethals each forged their own version of Total Football, exporting it to the Netherlands and, more significantly, to Belgium. They also served as key pedagogical figures in Arrigo Sacchi’s short yet intense managerial career.

By the time Sacchi made his debut as a high-profile coach, nearing his forties, he had already developed radical convictions. He proclaimed himself a disciple of the universalist school of the 1970s and placed a strong emphasis on collective play, its mechanisms, and its function. As we all know, his Parma side dazzled the eyes of Silvio Berlusconi, who boldly brought him to Milan and entrusted him with building his dream team.

It is well documented that, in the early months of his tenure, Sacchi’s methods—his extreme strictness and uncompromising authoritarianism—were rejected by the players. Berlusconi himself had to step in to defend his choice, asking the squad to be patient. However, it is equally well known that, after a few months of adjustments, Milan took off. They dominated Serie A, securing the title largely due to two commanding victories over Maradona’s Napoli, and subsequently imposed their dominance in Europe for two consecutive seasons. The international press, particularly L’Équipe, paid tribute to the Rossoneri, famously stating: “There was football in the 1980s, and then Milan arrived.”

The second key concept is pressing. Dutch and Belgian teams had long employed pressing as a collective defensive strategy, and many German and English teams had also drawn inspiration from the Dutch breakthrough two decades earlier, shaping their defensive approach accordingly.

However, no team had ever achieved the level of meticulous, almost abstract, perfection seen in Sacchi’s Milan. The team’s use of the offside trap, inspired by the Belgian school, was executed with relentless precision. For Sacchi, the defensive phase had to be meticulously structured, bordering on obsessive. His Milan suffocated opposition play like no team before them. The star-studded Real Madrid side of 1989 appeared utterly lost against Milan’s intelligent and calculated pressing.

All major post-Sacchi coaches who embraced total football followed his blueprint for pressing. Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich physically prevented opponents from advancing past their own third, while Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool dismantled numerous teams through coordinated, tireless counter-pressing. Klopp himself has repeatedly acknowledged his debt to Sacchi, stating: “I owe everything to Sacchi; he is the foundation of my work.” Even in Italy, Sacchi’s influence was immediate: the numerous international successes of Italian teams in the early 1990s can be traced back to the foundations laid by Sacchi. Furthermore, Marcello Lippi’s Juventus of the mid-90s, aside from Antonio Conte’s sides, was perhaps the most Sacchian interpretation of football ever seen after 1990.

The third key concept, which I consider crucial to Sacchi’s philosophy, is functionalism. His football is deeply functionalist, linking him strongly to the Italian tradition despite his decades-long attempts to distance himself from it.

Just like Italy’s tactical masterminds of the past, Sacchi was a radical functionalist—he believed that every position on the pitch had a clearly defined role. While his interpretation of these roles differed from Brera’s famous football neologisms, the essence remained the same. Even in a recent interview, Sacchi stated: “A full-back should play as a full-back, and a striker should play as a striker.” No further explanation is needed to understand his perspective.

For Sacchi and his ideological heirs—such as Capello, Lippi, and Conte, who softened some of Sacchi’s rigid principles—roles and functions were paramount. His football was highly structured, disciplined, and meticulous. This is why he valued hard-working team players just as much as superstars. The juventinizzazione of Lippi’s Juventus embodied the ultimate triumph of this philosophy: what mattered most was that every player performed their designated role to perfection.

Sacchi avoided South American players, knowing they would struggle to conform to his rigid system. His infamous preference for Rijkaard over Borghi—beyond the sheer difference in quality—was also driven by tactical considerations. In Sacchi’s system, Borghi would have been completely lost, and Sacchi himself was well aware of this.

Sacchi’s philosophy, centered on discipline, functionality, and relentless pressing, also shaped the tactical setup of his teams. His Milan and later his Italy adhered strictly to the 4-4-2 formation—the most rigid and structured system in football at the time. While Donadoni occasionally drifted centrally to form a quasi-diamond shape, Milan remained faithful to this tactical structure. The team functioned like a finely tuned symphony, moving in perfect harmony, a reflection of European football culture.

Sacchi’s football was aggressive, direct, and focused on attacking space. His players possessed extraordinary physical conditioning—his grueling training sessions, later replicated by Conte, speak volumes. However, despite its undeniable success, Sacchi’s methodology had vulnerabilities: against well-organized pressing teams, Milan occasionally struggled. Additionally, when the team’s physical condition was subpar, their effectiveness diminished, impacting consistency in league competitions.