Rebuilding Sampdoria: Inspecting Andrea Pirlo’s potential approach to the tremendous challenge – tactical analysis

Following a long and very successful playing career, Andrea Pirlo is now beginning his third coaching experience with Sampdoria after starting his coaching career at Juventus and leading Fatih Karagümrük for one season. Pirlo is one of the best midfielders ever and had some unique abilities and skills that made him an exceptional player throughout his footballing journey, whether at Milan, where he won everything possible or at Juventus, where he found his late excellent run of form again after being excluded from Milans project.

Known for his outstanding vision, passing, shooting and set-piece mastery, the Italian legend started his coaching career with a surprising first opportunity at Juventus. He led a group of experienced players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Leonardo Bonucci and other big names, and he was able to win Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana in 2020.

During that same season, he was able to apply his ideas to some extent, and the team played well on most occasions. It didnt lack identity, which is something that shouldnt be underestimated or under-evaluated because it is never simple to put an impact on experienced players and impose ones ideas in a brief time while still winning titles and challenging for the Serie A title with Inter and finishing among the top-four below Milan and Atalanta.

This first considerable coaching experience helped Pirlo learn a lot, make mistakes and acquire experience as a Serie A coach before moving to Turkey and starting from zero with a club that strives to develop and challenge for more advanced spots in the Süper Lig standings. Following a more complicated yet useful experience in Turkey, Pirlo has returned to Italy, specifically to Serie B, where he will strive to get Sampdoria promoted to Serie A again — historically, the teams fitting place.

Sampdoria have been facing some ups and downs over the last few years. With the arrival of new management, a new head coach and a new head of performance embodied in Nicola Legrottaglie, the whole Genova atmosphere is witnessing a rejuvenation and a great desire to work to get Sampdoria back to where it belongs, to Serie A and especially to playing progressive football in Serie A.

In this tactical analysis article, our primary focus will be on Pirlos footballing philosophy, ideas, and how he wants to manage teams. Moreover, a section will be reserved for assessing Sampdorias recruitment strategy under Pirlo and Legrottaglie to identify the teams needs and evaluate their first few signings and the actual squad. Also, the analysis will look at Sampdorias most suitable formation and line-up to predict the teams tactics in Serie A this season.

Pirlos progressive football

This progressive football can be guaranteed under the management of someone like Andrea Pirlo, who expressed on several occasions his desire always to play progressive and attacking football in which his team needs more possession, more passes and more chance creation numbers per game. He strived to impose this strategy at Juventus and was relatively successful despite the numerous problems surrounding the club and the dressing room at that time.

In his UEFA Pro Licence thesis, Pirlo expressed that he aims to have 11 active players in both the defensive and the offensive phase while having possession for as long as possible and trying to recover as quickly as possible when losing the ball. This style combines the ideas of Cruijffs Barcelona and Guardiolas, Van Gaals Ajax, Ancelottis Milan and Contes Juventus.

Inspired by these ideas, Pirlos offensive phase is characterised by a continuous resistance to high pressing and intelligent usage of build-up from the back to avoid that pressing and then aim at passing between the lines to overcome more defensive lines without losing compactness while attacking as a unit.

Moreover, the build-up relies on guaranteeing numerical superiority by adding goalkeepers or using a midfielder or a full-back who moves towards the centre to provide a passing possibility that can help overcome the high pressing line. My idea of the construction is to climb compactly, overcoming one pressure line at a time without forcing verticalisation or launches.

Once in the opponents half, Pirlo gives a lot of importance to movements without the ball and quick and powerful passes that break defensive lines. He also prefers diagonal passes whenever possible and pushes his players to always provide a passing option, especially inside the final third. This is valid for attacking players and midfielders since we saw how impactful midfielders can be under Pirlos management when he was at Juventus.

The following example from the match against Barcelona highlights the midfielder Weston McKennies attacking impact since he was the one providing the pass to Juan Cuadrado, who crossed the ball, and McKennie was at the receiving end of the cross to finish it with a beautiful volley. This can only stress that Pirlo always wants his players to move a lot without the ball, even after providing key passes, knowing that this would guarantee more possibilities for the player holding the ball and, therefore, more goalscoring chances.