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Forget Mourinho, Guardiola and Simeone. Conte is the best coach in the world
The impact of Lippi and Capello, for instance was definitely quite big.
Think about Antonio Conte. His work has shaped the Italian team at EURO 2016, he has left the mark. I still believe that there are no stars among Italian players apart from Gianluigi Buffon. Under technical terms, we are worse than Spain, Germany and France, Croatia, Belgium and England.
This national team is probably one of the worst azzurri squad to have ever played an international tournament like a European Championship or a World Cup.
However, Antonio Conte has been phenomenal. He has picked the right players for his idea of football. He has trained their bodies and their souls so that both could work harmoniously. He has studied each game in details converting a decent group into an overwhelming one.
Italy dominated Spain yesterday, we have no prodigies, but our team can be phenomenal.
No manager has a bigger impact than Conte on a football team right now. Not Guardiola, who has invented a brand new style - the Tiki Taka - and a new way of playing football, but who has coached Barcelona and Bayern Munich, not properly the weakest teams out there.
Not even José Mourinho has had a bigger impact than Conte. The Special One has been winning bags of trophies everywhere. He always takes the best out of his players but his style of play has never been an attractive one and, just like Guardiola, he has always worked with the best players.
Ancelotti knows exactly how to manage a group of champions, but he has proved he can only win when he coaches big names. Diego Simeone’s style is similar to Conte’s. El Cholo’s Atletico have less quality than other big European clubs, but his players do sacrifice, they run, they fight and they are in perfect sync with their manager.
Los Colchoneros, however, sit back in big games, they make lot of fouls. Like Hernan Crespo said before the Champions League final, Simeone’s style, El Cholismo, once was called catenaccio.
Italy don’t sit back, nor Antonio Conte’s Juventus did.
That’s why, if one would ask me who I think is the best manager in the world, I’d definitely answer Conte. He had brought Juventus back to the top requesting the signing of Emanuele Giaccherini and he has done the same with Italy in one of the darkest moments of Italian football in terms of quality and talents.
Conte is the best manager in the world and I cannot wait to see if he will prove it in the Premier League next season, when he will be facing Guardiola and Mourinho.
Stefano Agresti @steagresti, translated by Lorenzo Bettoni @lorebetto
