Max Allegri claims technology is killing the art of football management. “If you mechanise everything, you no longer have thinking players.”
In a candid interview with James Horncastle for ESPN, Allegri revealed how he did not even own a laptop computer and rued coaches’ increasing reliance on electronic data.
“In my ignorance I don’t even have a computer,” said the former Juventus boss.
Max Allegri claims technology is killing the art of football management. “If you mechanise everything, you no longer have thinking players.”
In a candid interview with James Horncastle for ESPN, Allegri revealed how he did not even own a laptop computer and rued coaches’ increasing reliance on electronic data.
“In my ignorance I don’t even have a computer,” said the former Juventus boss.
“I’ve got an iPad that Juventus gave me. I watch games on it, pull up some stats. Fortunately I’ve got a good memory and I manage to remember what happens in games.
“A coach has to be on the sideline. He has to breathe the game, he has to understand when it’s time to make a sub or take off his best player because the team needs a different kind of player.
“The perception is different from the sideline. They’re making out football to be an exact science. If that’s the case, the coach may as well go to the cinema.”
It was then put to him that Serie A was giving every club’s coaching staff an iPad preloaded with the app Virtual Coach…
“Now we’re really done for. If you mechanise everything, you no longer have thinking players.
“If the players are used to going through that door and the door is locked, they’ll end up banging their heads against it. If the players are used to thinking for themselves, they’ll try to find another way out.”
Allegri was known for his hands-off approach with Juve’s creative players, and he maintained that was the best way to use them.
“When the ball gets to your [Cristiano] Ronaldos, [Paulo] Dybalas, Ronaldinhos, [Clarence] Seedorfs or [Andrea] Pirlos … I have to put the other players in a position to get the ball to them, and once they have the ball they decide what to do with it, what the best decision is.
“My son is 8, and every now and then we go on YouTube and watch the great players, the amazing things they do in attack and in defence, because football is art.
“In Italy, the tactics, schemes, they’re all bull. Football is art and the artists are the world-class players.
“You don’t have to teach them anything, you just admire them. All you need to do is put them in the best condition to do well.
“I love it when I see a great player do something amazing. On the bench, I’m a spectator watching a show put on by someone, and that someone is a player.”