Gentile VS Zico

'Maradona was more individualistic, and practically all of their play was channelled through him.' Claudio Gentile Explains. 'Zico, in contrast, was more of a team player. He brought his team-mates into play, so I'd consider him to be a more complete player. But Maradona was more decisive, because when he'd spring into attack, he could win a match all by himself. That was shown in the 1986 World Cup, which he won all by himself. Bearzot was very clever on that occasion. I had just had this battle against Maradona, in which I had fared well, but he didn't want to put me under too much pressure by telling me I was going to mark another important player. So he made me believe that I was going to mark Eder. Then, five minutes before the game, he came to see me and told me "Look, I've changed my mind, take Zico." I didn't even have the time to think before I took to the field. Bearzot very cleverly relieved the mental pressure. When I had to mark an opponent, I knew I had a specific task to accomplish, and I'd do some homework before by studying the player. I did that with Maradona, even though I already knew him and how he played. So I tried to mark different players in different ways. But as for the rest, whether the player was tall or short, thin or strong, I just had to do my job the best way I could.'

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Zico
• Gentile
• Maradona
• Brazil
• Italy
• World
• Cup
• 1982
• Man
• Marking

[ideasfaltan]

VERGOGNA GENTILE!!! TODAY THEE FOOTBALL IS BETTER

[feanorelf1]

@klos1001 Tricket is not a real word ;-) The point is not how many defenders you have around you: Maradona sometimes liked to stop and let the defenders surround him, just to get out and have free room. One defender can be enough, if he knows HOW to defend: just look at Baresi against Brasil. Defenders nowadays lack defensive basic skills. I mean marking, anticipation, tackling and so on... I just see what boosra has described. More physical: maybe... then I would just look at athletics.

[klos1001]

@boosra in my opinion todays football is better, it is more evolved, that is my opinion

[klos1001]

@feanorelf1 i think we hace to respect todays forward, it is true in 80's the defenders there were more hard trickets, but todyas football is more evolved, is more physical, todays footballers plays 1 match every 3 or 4 days, 80's NO, so in my opinion todays football is not easy, messi for example plays ALL the matches, and when he has the ball he has 3 or 4 defenders around him, i think we have to respect todays football, in my opinion is better

[feanorelf1]

@boosra That|s true, but that's also the reason, why I believe life of an attacker is much easier now. For example, today is much more difficult for a defender to tackle a good dribbler without risking yellows and red cards (just talking about Messi).

[boosra]

@feanorelf1

Yes - there were only 2 faults with '80's football.

1. Backpasses to the keeper

2. Referees too lenient on persistent fouling.

In every other respect its far superior to todays junk.

[boosra]

@feanorelf1

The problem is, the modern balloon ball. It flies too fast over short distances to allow a marker to arrive on time to disrupt reception of the ball. And reasonable physical pressure is not allowed either.

Teams don't bother defending anymore. They chase like crazy briefly, and if unsuccessful, blanket the penalty area with 10 men. Its turning into basketball, and its sickening me.

[Moheir]

Every time I look at this match, I don´t know why, still I hope that Brazil will score the third goal somehow. Beautiful, artistic and magical football .........

[feanorelf1]

@michael9678727 I know that man-marking is just a dinosaur, and considered "anti-football (yet, the duels between Vierchowood (one of the best man markers ever) and Maradona and Van Basten were spectacular.

However, my point is that, even with zonal defence, marking should be a basic skill of any defender, and nowadays this skill is lacking (not taught anymore?): I am always amazed how much freedom a forward has today.

If Gentile played by today's rules, he would play differently, likely.

[michael9678727]

@feanorelf1 well defenders these days don't mark individual players. in 82 Gentile was told to stick to Zico like glue. If he was playing today he would have been sent off half way through that game.