The best emerging managers in football: Thiago Motta, a fascinating tactician

Thiago Motta knows a thing or two about success.

When your CV includes two La Liga titles, one Serie A title, five Ligue 1 titles and two Champions League winners’ medals, you are likely to command quick respect in the dressing room.

That said, few people need reminding that a successful playing profession does circuitously translate into a successful coaching profession. What about Thiago Motta, the manager?

The 41-year-old transformed Bologna from Serie A strugglers into probably the most aesthetic teams in Italy. With just nine games left in the season, the Rossoblu are in fourth place and are one step away from a Champions League spot for the primary time in 60 years.

Motta’s stock has never been higher, but his perseverance and energy through difficult times have already shaped his early managerial profession.

The lifetime of a top-flight coach suffered a false start after Motta was sacked after just nine games at Genoa in December 2019. It took until the summer of 2021 for him to have a full season to completely showcase his coaching skills, showing off keeping relegation favorites Spezia in Serie A in the campaign against all odds.

In September 2022, he moved to Bologna, where, after taking up the reins from his beloved Sinisa Mihajlovic in controversial circumstances, not every little thing began as planned. Without a win in his first 4 matches, Motta needed to regularly gain the trust of Bologna fans, repaying their faith by leading the club to ninth place in the 2022–2023 season, the club’s best result in over 10 years.

With the support of Giovanni Sartori (technical director) and Joey Saputo (Bologna’s owner), Motta was tasked with implementing his tactical ideals – but what exactly are these tactical ideals?

Motta wasn’t shy about sharing his philosophy during his first coaching role with PSG’s Under-19 team in 2018. It was here that he faced unnecessary derision for discussing a 2-7-2 formation, which was misinterpreted as a back-to-front structure moderately than the intended left-to-right.

“I consider the goalkeeper to be one of the seven players in the middle of the pitch,” Motta said. “For me, a striker is the first defender and the goalkeeper is the first striker. The goalkeeper starts the game with his feet and the attackers are the first to apply pressure to win the ball back.

It’s safe to say that since then, Motta has successfully shaped Bologna in his image.

This can be seen in the data below by looking at the evolution of Rossoblu’s playing style, which shows the team’s statistics compared to the top seven European leagues.

Referring specifically to Motta’s philosophy, there has been a significant increase in Bologna’s defensive work rate up front since the 2022-2023 season, rarely allowing the opponent to build a passing sequence before making a tackle (intensity, 80 out of 99).

As a result, Bologna’s defense is one of the strongest in Europe this season (chance prevention, 92 out of 99), and the number of goals conceded apart from expected penalties is just 0.8, a result bettered only by Serie A Turin, Juventus and Inter Milan. .

What’s particularly interesting is the way Bologna likes to build from the back (building deep).

Most often lining up in a fluid 4-2-3-1 formation, Motta encourages his center backs to push forward and act like a starter when in possession – in a similar way you can see Manchester City’s John Stones stepping into midfield .

Since goalkeeper Łukasz Skorupski is trusted as the “first striker” in the build-up phase, the basic idea is that there should always be a free player to pass to while moving the ball into the third.

An example of this can be seen from the first minute of Bologna’s match against Inter Milan earlier this month. When Jhon Lucumi has possession of the ball, fellow central defender Sam Beukema moves into the central area in front of the ball to ensure he can pass from another attacking line. Beukema’s positioning helps Lucumi receive the passed pass into space and then release right-back Stefan Posch onto the right flank.

Later in the first half, it was Lucumi who pushed inside to receive the ball, while Bologna formed a back three – this time with midfielder Michel Aebischer (20) coming into action. In this case, Lucumi does not receive the ball, but his positioning drags the Inter player with him to make space elsewhere, and Bologna still have a free player as they progress.

Where Bologna differs from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is that Motta encourages the centre-backs to move into midfield and the full-backs drop inside to… be full-backs.

Whether it is Lucumi, Beukema or 21-year-old star Riccardo Calafiori, this approach is fundamental to Bologna’s fluidity of play and relies on the strong technical profile of Motta’s center backs.

In his master’s thesis on the UEFA Pro license, titled “The value of the ball”, Motta discusses collective “technical trust” as a key a part of his philosophy, where each player is given the liberty to make decisions that he believes are most useful to the team in a given situation.

It’s no wonder that possession of the ball is crucial to decision-making.

Only Napoli can boast a greater share of Serie A than Bologna’s 58% of possession this season, and Motta wants his team to work patiently to open up with dynamic positional rotation.

As this season’s style circle shows, Bologna’s high position in the Circulate rankings shows that Motta’s team are unable to maneuver the ball forward quickly, but will as an alternative play short, sharp passes to maneuver the opposition’s structure and lure the press in front execution of the opening – no different from Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton.

Motta can also be a keen admirer of Marcelo Bielsa’s prodigious output and can often deal with third-position combos and off-the-ball runs as a key element of Bologna’s attacking progress.

One example may be seen during Bologna’s match against Roma this season, with Beukema putting pressure on the suitable wing as teammates cluster close together. Midfielder Remo Freuler’s blind cross sees Beukema cut the ball into space and quickly move forward, with winger Dan Ndoye then tapping the ball away for Nikola Moro to finish the fast break that Bologna had prepared for themselves.

Such incisive attacks by Bologna’s forwards are a key motif of Motta’s style. As can be seen from the “Mid Progression” rating (98 out of 99), Bologna rarely cross the ball – only Frosinone averages lower than 13.4 crosses per 90 – but they use the pace and tricks of dangerous wingers with Ndoye, Alexis Saelemaekers and Riccardo Orsolini capable of drive forward and shoot or create actions from advanced positions.

Ultimately, Bologna’s most significant attacks come through the center of the pitch, with versatile Scot Lewis Ferguson capable of take tenth position behind the technically gifted Joshua Zirkzee.

The two have formed a strong partnership together and are chargeable for over a third of Bologna’s Serie A goals this season.

“I play close to Joshua. Technically he’s really, really good,” Ferguson said last year. “He is strong, fast and powerful. He has everything you could want in a striker. He’s fun to play with. We bounce off each other. If he runs one way, I’ll run the other way.

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While Zirkzee’s 10 Serie A goals (eight shots without penalties) top the Bologna squad, the 22-year-old Dutchman is not a typical number 9. Apart from his technical skills, Zirkzee is more appreciated by his teammates for his ability to switch on others to play – regularly dropping into a false nine or pinning down a center back to get ahead of runners.

To judge him solely on his goals – he has yet to record a penalty this season – would be to misunderstand his role in Motta’s system.

Bologna’s recent goal against Empoli brings together many of the threads discussed about how Motta likes his team to play in the opponent’s half. When Empoli’s center back hits the ball in midfield, Moro rushes to block the ball. As the ball falls to Zirkzee, he pins the defender with his back to goal before passing the ball to Orsolini for an incoming run. The Italian enters the penalty area and counter-attacks strongly.

From regaining possession to breaking the deadlock in no more than seven seconds.

If Motta is able to lead Bologna to the top four this season (fifth place may also suffice), the prospect of leading the Rossoblu to their first European Cup appearance since 1964-65 will surely be the highlight of Motta’s early managerial career.

The reality is that Motta’s contract expires in the summer and many of Europe’s top clubs are already looking to sign the exciting young manager ahead of the 2024-25 season. Bologna CEO Claudio Fenucci was understandably reluctant to accept the possibility of losing his coach in the coming months.

“Thiago is very happy in Bologna,” Fenucci recently said in a radio interview. “It’s like he has a longer contract than he actually has.”

Regardless of the match result, Motta has shown that he’s probably the most attractive managerial prospects in European football.

Wherever he goes, success often follows him.