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The Player

Gennaro Gattuso’s is primarily know for being a key player of Carlo Ancelotti's great AC Milan of the early/mid 2000, he played mostly as an aggressive ball winning DM next to players like Pirlo, Kaka or Seedorf. He won practically everything there is to win at AC Milan and with the national team.

His coaching debut (2014-2017)

As a coach he started out as an interim at FC Sion in Switzerland, and Palermo in Sicily. He managed a grand total of 11 matchs over this period with little to no success.

He was sacked out of his first managerial job in the Greek Championship in 2014. Six months later he was offered the coaching position at Pisa FC (now Pisa Sporting Club). He managed to get the team promoted to Serie B but then got relegated back down the following season.

AC Milan (2017-2019)

He then took over AC Milan U19 rather successfully which gave him enough credit to become interim manager of the A team when Vincenzo Montella was sacked. In his first season he tinkered around with the system but ended up settling for an offensively minded 4-3-3. The team finished 6th with 6th offense and 5th defense in his first season. Gattuso and his team got to the final of the Italian Cup but lost 4-0 to Juve. He was also eliminated by Arsenal in the round of 16 of the Europa League.

In his second season with the rossoneri he stayed with his 4-3-3 formation and managed to take his team to 5th in the table by improving defensive solidity. Milan’s performances in European and Italian cups were disappointing however, they were knocked out in the Semi in the Italian cup and failed to go beyond the group stage in the Europa League.

To his detriment Gattuso had to deal with a fairly young and inexperienced squad with Pepe Reina, Cristian Zapata, Gonzalo Higuain, Lucas Biglia and Riccardo Montolivo being the only players over the age of 25.

To remedy the defensive unbalance that lead to Montella’s sacking, Gattuso opted to play with a mid-level block and a rather patient pressing style which generated criticism from fans and his sporting director Leonardo (ex PSG) who expected more ambitious and positive football and shot him down for missing out on Champions League football. Gattuso suffered the comparison with the tremendous achievements of Roberto De Zerbi at Sassuolo or Gian Piero Gasperini with Atalanta.

With his position under threat and pressure from the board to do better in the following season Gattuso resigned at the end of the 2019 season. He asked for his leaving fee to be redistributed to the backroom staff that would lose their job with his departure.

Napoli (2019 - 2021)

Gattuso helmed 81 matches over two seasons at Napoli. He took over from Carlo Ancelotti in December 2019 when the team was sitting 9th in the table. After a rough first 10 matches where the Partenopei dropped as low as14th he managed to salvage the season by getting Napoli European football and by winning the Italian cup, defeating Juve on penalties in the final.

In his second season, the Azzurri displayed greater regularity and remained in European positions for most of the season, and missed out on Champions League football by drawing their final match of the season. He lost to Atalanta in the semi-final of the Italian cup and was eliminated of the Europa League in the first round of knockouts by Granada FC.

Gattuso is credited for bringing serenity to a dressing room on the verge of explosion and nursing back to form players like Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne or Nikola Maksimovic. He also managed to bring a title to the Azzurri which is something that more highly rated managers, Maurizio Sarri or Ancelotti to name a few, failed to do a few years before him.

Valencia (2022-2023)

In the summer of 2022, the former Italian international took over from Pepe Bordalas who had finished 9th and had reached the final of the Copa Del Rey the year before by playing very direct football (4th lowest possession in La Liga). Gattuso’s mission was to emulate what he had done in his former clubs and bring back Valencia to its former glory and aim for European positions it had failed reached for the past three seasons.

He said in his introduction speech that he was there to give disappointing players a second chance to prove they are worthy to play European football. He tried to put in place his favoured possession focused 4-3-3 but this dramatic change away from Bordalas's style took too long to take effect and the owner Peter Lim sacked Gattuso after a string of bad results. Valencia were sitting in the 14th position when Gattuso left, and his successors Voro (interim) and Ruben Baraja did no better finishing 14th at the end of the season.

This season Valencia are 11th after 4 games.

His style of football

Formations: 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 on offense, 4-1-4-1 or 4-4-2 on defence

Gattuso likes his team to control possession (around 54% on average at Napoli, 3rd highest in Serie A) and that starts with a strong build-up from the back. The Italian generally uses 6 players in this phase of play. He asks his players to offer many options to the keeper and the center backs to play it short: wing backs will stay in their first third at first and the midfield will drop deep to the edge of the box to offer a solution. This is to both retain possession on goal kicks and to create space in the middle of the field by attracting the opposition in the team’s own half.

Once they beat the press, Gattuso’s teams look to overload areas of the field where they want to dominate and proceed to move with quick passing. He generally looks to widen the field to generate space, and encourage crosses and movement in half-spaces.

He is also a man that is obsessed with balance and wants to anticipate defensive transitions by discouraging his wide players to be on the front foot at the same time.

He was often criticized for being too reliant on individual prowess and not preparing offensive plays to conclude long phases of possession.

Defensively, Gattuso is old school. Many coaches nowadays may have followed the trend of Guardiola’s intense and aggressive counter-press, Gattuso is not one of them. He will look to maintain defensive cohesion and structure. Data shows that his Napoli regained possession after 14-15 passes from the opposition on average when De Zerbi’s Sassuolo regained it after 10 on average.

Gattuso is not dogmatic on the line of engagement, depending on the situation of the match and the opposition, he will instruct his player to keep a low, medium or high line. His only consistency is to close down on player in the middle of the park and guide the opposition to the edges where there are fewer options and less space.

The man behind the coach

Gattuso was an aggressive player on the pitch but as a coach he is known to bring calm and serenity to his dressing room. He is close to his players and has been described as a honest and humble man. Like his former self, he knows that he has to do the dirty work and let his players shine, he might therefore be vehement with the press but will publicly protect his players at all costs.

He speaks perfectly good English as he has played one season in Scotland at Glasgow Rangers and his married to a Scot of Italian descent with whom he as two children.

Sources:

https://www.transfermarkt.fr/gennaro-gattuso/profil/trainer/27803

https://www.eurosport.fr/football/serie-a/2019-2020/docteur-gennaro-mister-gattuso-le-pitbull-du-terrain-s-est-assagi-sur-le-banc_sto7787860/story.shtml

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/head-coach-analysis/gennaro-gattuso-at-valencia-202223-tactical-analysis-tactics

https://es.coachesvoice.com/cv/gennaro-gattuso-valencia-analisis/