Antonio Conte shares many traits with his former boss and Inter predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni, according to a report in the Italian media.
Trapattoni celebrates his 82nd birthday on Wednesday and Tuttosport’s print edition took the opportunity to compare the two great Italian coaches.
While football has changed a lot since Trapattoni coached Conte at Juventus in the early 1990s, some of his ideas can still be seen today, especially in Conte’s Inter side which sits top of Serie A.
Their attention to the defensive phase of the game is similar, the report argued, and so is their desire to get the ball forward quickly to make the most of their attacking players.
Conte and Trapattoni have both relied upon service from wing-backs during their coaching careers, and they have both used tenacious central midfielders – such as Nicolo Barella for Conte and Nicola Berti for Trap.
Inter’s Serie A title-winning strike partnership of Aldo Serena and Ramon Diaz in 1989 was also said to be comparable to Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez today.
Aside from the tactical similarities, the Turin-based paper also noted that Conte and Trap had very similar styles when coaching from the touchline.
Both are always keen to make sure their voice is heard by players on a constant basis throughout games.
