Pep Guardiola ‘ruining’ defenders with his tactics as Giorgio Chiellini claims ‘we’re losing our DNA’
Juventus star says Manchester City boss and his tactics has inspired a generation of defenders in Italy who have forgotten how to defend
GIORGIO CHIELLINI has accused Pep Guardiola of ruining the art of defending in Italy.
Juventus star Chiellini has been one of the world's top defenders over the last decade after being schooled in the art as a youngster.
But the no-nonsense Italy star says Guardiola's trailblazing brand of football has turned the next crop of Italians into players who don't know how to defend.
Chiellini has even coined a phrase for the trend which he fears has ended the country's reputation as the best at stopping opponents from scoring - The Guardiola Way.
The Juve ace said: "Guardiolismo has ruined many Italian defenders a bit.
"Now defenders know how to set the tone of play and they can spread the ball, but they don't know how to mark. Unfortunately, that's the way it is.
"When I was young, we used to do drills to get a feel for the man you were marking.
"Nowadays, from crosses, Italian defenders - and I can only really talk for Italian defenders, I am only relatively interested about foreign players - don't mark their man.
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"It's a great pity because we're losing our DNA a bit and some of those characteristics which had made us excel in the world."
Though Guardiola has never managed in Italy, the impact he has made on football in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Manchester City has been huge.
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More coaches want to play an expansive game from the back, and that means defenders who are good on the ball.
But Chiellini says the development threatens the potential for Italy to do well in future years, because although they are technically good they do not have the natural flair of the Spanish.
He added: "Now, we need talented players up front, but we also need to bring somebody through in defence because we are never going to be able to play Spain's tiki-taka because it's not part of our philosophy.
"Anyway, there are some players emerging behind us: Caldara, Rugani and Romagnoli need to get some international experience, but it's normal.
"In fact many of them have already played more games than I had at their age."