Except Chiellini thinks the Europe-wide trend to follow Pep Guardiola's lead - he has railed against "tiki taka" play before - has meant that young Italian defenders have lost the essence of playing in the Italian style.
With Manchester City turning this year's premier league into a procession, playing lovely, easy on the eye football and scoring so many fabulous goals, now might not seem the right time to ask whether the emperor is, while obviously not naked, entirely fully clothed.
I loved Guardiola's reaction to a Raheem Sterling miss recently. If you didn't see it, after Sterling created an opening for himself and did everything right until hitting the ball just over the bar from close range, Guardiola jumped up and down in frustration. But then, realising Sterling had probably seen that, he called him over and basically gave him a kiss. Spot on - coaches shouldn't undermine a striker for missing as they all do it.
But I've been stewing over a journalist's praise for another bit of play last month - when City were losing 0-1 at home to Bristol City in the Carabao Cup - Football League Cup to oldies. It was the semi-final first leg. The City no 2 goalie, Claudio Bravo, was playing. He plays well with his feet and was brought in to replace Joe Hart, who doesn't, but wasn't a good enough keeper, hence the signing of Ederson, which has very much been a factor in City's serene progression towards the Premier League title. Bravo, receiving a back pass and faced with several Bristol players in front of him, didn't knock the ball long but calmly slid a pass between them, taking several opponents out of the game. City equalised from that move, which they probably wouldn't have done had Bravo just hoofed it. The journalist was in ecstasy about this piece of play, which he said turned the game, which City went on to win. It was cited as an example of why Guardiola is right to insist on having a goalie who can pass as well as any other player on the pitch.
And yet..... it was only just after half time in the first leg of a semi-final. With more than 2 hours of football to go, Manchester City were still strong favourites to come out on top. My concern is about the balance of risk and reward. To state the obvious, football isn't like basketball. It's a low scoring sport. Each goal therefore has huge potential value. If it had not been a two leg match, going 2-0 down at that point could have been decisive. My problem, which it looks as if I share with Chiellini, is about the amount of risk taken by playing too much football near your own goal.
Witness the Manchester City 4-3 defeat a few weeks later at Anfield. In the decisive section of the match City went from 2-1 to 4-1 down in 7 minutes through two catastrophic defensive errors, both caused by taking too much risk. Firstly John Stones, who had already been muscled off the ball rather too easily by Roberto Firmino for Liverpool's second goal, tried to hit a pass forward when a Liverpool player was bearing down on him and getting very close. The ball cannoned off the Liverpool player towards the City goal and from that break Liverpool scored. Secondly, City's first choice goalkeeper Ederson came out of his penalty area to intercept a through ball and tried to knock a low pass forward, only succeeding in hitting it straight to a Liverpool player, leaving himself hopelessly stranded. And not just any Liverpool player, Mo Salah, who naturally scored. Although City came back strongly late on to make it 4-3, the game was all but done and dusted at 4-1.
The Stones incident made me wince for another reason. It came after City had made too many passes in a tight area of their own half. Liverpool, masters of the pressing game, had someone bearing down on Stones before the ball was even hit to him. He had no-one other than the keeper to play it back to and the pace of the pass would have made it risky for him to let the ball run and turn, given Salah - lightning fast anyway - was already motoring. So it was understandable that he tried to play it forward. But he miscalculated how much time he had before Salah was on top of him. When the ball ricochets behind you off a player running at you at full tilt the likeliest outcome is that you are left on your heels trying to turn while your opponent runs on to a ball already ten yards behind you, putting you out of the game. I know this only too well because it happened to me in an important match. Well, important at the standard I played at - a Warrington and District League Rylands Cup quarter final in 1978, a day which I can unfortunately remember as if it was yesterday. We had a good team at the time - we'd won our division the previous season - and were fancied in this cup. I had been playing centre back for a bit more than a season by then. There was a howling gale blowing straight down the pitch at our host's ground and we kicked with it in the first half, taking a 3-0 lead. Just before half time I did exactly what John Stones did, just inside my own half and the opponent ran onto the ball and scored. Turning round into the wind at 3-1 rather than 3-0 proved decisive. In a second half resembling the Alamo we held out at 3-3 into the final minutes, but lost it near the end. The goal against the wind was critical psychologically as much as anything. Jammed in someone's very full car on the way back I can recall Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army coming on the radio - "and I would rather be anywhere else but here today". The team that we lost to went on to win the cup and, in 17 years of playing schoolboy and men's football, I never got to play in a cup final. It was pretty much my own fault.
But the thing is, I never made that mistake again, even if the only option available to me was a rather lame hoof sideways to avoid the ball being charged down, which was John Stones's only realistic alternative to the forward pass. Remember City were losing but only by one goal with plenty of time to go. Now I'm a fan of Stones, who I think should be an automatic inclusion in England's World Cup Finals squad. I admire his calmness on the ball, but he does over do it. On one occasion notorious among Everton fans he executed three turns in his own penalty area, one of them a "Cruyff" turn and one adjacent to the six yard box. He got away with it, that time. I thought Manchester City was the right move for him as he would be encouraged to play but I also thought Guardiola would help him get the balance right.
The thing about catastrophic errors is whether you learn from them. I recall what a very good golfer said not long after I had started playing and was marvelling at the the skills of the professionals. "Well you see, Phil, by the time you were 30 just think how many hours you spent working for your O-levels, A-levels, degree and then at work. They spend that time and more on golf". And so it is with a professional footballer. It beggars belief that Stones hasn't learned this lesson before. And of course, he must have. But he knows his coach expects him to play football, all the time.
For several years the goalkeeper I played in front of was a man mountain known as Herbie. He was a great 5 a side goalscorer too, so he could play. As a schoolboy winger converted via midfield and right back into a ball playing centre half I liked to pass the ball out whenever I could. And if not that, then a daring back pass (in those days the keeper could pick it up) gave me a buzz. In the best I ever pulled off I was under pressure in the penalty area and facing my own goal, but still chipped a pass over a second opponent between me and Herbie into his hands. Not enough on it and I would have presented it to the other forward. Too much and it would have sailed over Herbie into my own net. I can still remember the daggers he glared at me before launching the ball up the pitch as he realised a quick break was on. I think Pep would have liked that. But I can still hear Herbie growling "too much football", "not across your own box" and "get rid" when he wasn't happy with what we were doing in front of him.
Sure Manchester City can get away with it against Bristol City. But they didn't against Liverpool. And I don't know if Pep pays any attention to that difference.
OK so Guardiola is at least 80% right, which is still very right. Yes they will win the Premier League at a canter. But to win clusters of trophies - they could still win all four this season, a feat never achieved by an English team before - they will need to win crunch one off cup ties. If I was a City fan, I would worry that big one off games like the one at Anfield or maybe in the future a Champions League final could be lost in the blink of an eye by "too much football".
Guardiola wants City to be the best club team in Europe, if not the world. And they might do it. But the thing is the best club side in the Europe isn't ever going to be that much better than the next half a dozen. So when you come up against one of them in a Champions League final you really can't afford mistakes near your own goal.
Interesting that Liverpool, whose goals on Sunday at Southampton were footballing beauty just as much as anything conjured by City this season, can also be flaky in defence. But it did make for a fabulous match in that head to head game at Anfield. So I suppose I'm happy for City to carry on doing what they do. It's great to watch and it gives the other team a chance.
P.S. My mate Herbie's a good guy. We also did all the finance and administration for the club between us for 5 or 6 years, leaving the team managers to get on with the football. Now in his 60s he has been coaching football for many years at one of Liverpool's pre-eminent sports and social clubs. I'm not for a moment suggesting he's as good as Pep Guardiola, but I'm a firm believer that everyone can learn something from someone else....
I loved Guardiola's reaction to a Raheem Sterling miss recently. If you didn't see it, after Sterling created an opening for himself and did everything right until hitting the ball just over the bar from close range, Guardiola jumped up and down in frustration. But then, realising Sterling had probably seen that, he called him over and basically gave him a kiss. Spot on - coaches shouldn't undermine a striker for missing as they all do it.
But I've been stewing over a journalist's praise for another bit of play last month - when City were losing 0-1 at home to Bristol City in the Carabao Cup - Football League Cup to oldies. It was the semi-final first leg. The City no 2 goalie, Claudio Bravo, was playing. He plays well with his feet and was brought in to replace Joe Hart, who doesn't, but wasn't a good enough keeper, hence the signing of Ederson, which has very much been a factor in City's serene progression towards the Premier League title. Bravo, receiving a back pass and faced with several Bristol players in front of him, didn't knock the ball long but calmly slid a pass between them, taking several opponents out of the game. City equalised from that move, which they probably wouldn't have done had Bravo just hoofed it. The journalist was in ecstasy about this piece of play, which he said turned the game, which City went on to win. It was cited as an example of why Guardiola is right to insist on having a goalie who can pass as well as any other player on the pitch.
And yet..... it was only just after half time in the first leg of a semi-final. With more than 2 hours of football to go, Manchester City were still strong favourites to come out on top. My concern is about the balance of risk and reward. To state the obvious, football isn't like basketball. It's a low scoring sport. Each goal therefore has huge potential value. If it had not been a two leg match, going 2-0 down at that point could have been decisive. My problem, which it looks as if I share with Chiellini, is about the amount of risk taken by playing too much football near your own goal.
Witness the Manchester City 4-3 defeat a few weeks later at Anfield. In the decisive section of the match City went from 2-1 to 4-1 down in 7 minutes through two catastrophic defensive errors, both caused by taking too much risk. Firstly John Stones, who had already been muscled off the ball rather too easily by Roberto Firmino for Liverpool's second goal, tried to hit a pass forward when a Liverpool player was bearing down on him and getting very close. The ball cannoned off the Liverpool player towards the City goal and from that break Liverpool scored. Secondly, City's first choice goalkeeper Ederson came out of his penalty area to intercept a through ball and tried to knock a low pass forward, only succeeding in hitting it straight to a Liverpool player, leaving himself hopelessly stranded. And not just any Liverpool player, Mo Salah, who naturally scored. Although City came back strongly late on to make it 4-3, the game was all but done and dusted at 4-1.
The Stones incident made me wince for another reason. It came after City had made too many passes in a tight area of their own half. Liverpool, masters of the pressing game, had someone bearing down on Stones before the ball was even hit to him. He had no-one other than the keeper to play it back to and the pace of the pass would have made it risky for him to let the ball run and turn, given Salah - lightning fast anyway - was already motoring. So it was understandable that he tried to play it forward. But he miscalculated how much time he had before Salah was on top of him. When the ball ricochets behind you off a player running at you at full tilt the likeliest outcome is that you are left on your heels trying to turn while your opponent runs on to a ball already ten yards behind you, putting you out of the game. I know this only too well because it happened to me in an important match. Well, important at the standard I played at - a Warrington and District League Rylands Cup quarter final in 1978, a day which I can unfortunately remember as if it was yesterday. We had a good team at the time - we'd won our division the previous season - and were fancied in this cup. I had been playing centre back for a bit more than a season by then. There was a howling gale blowing straight down the pitch at our host's ground and we kicked with it in the first half, taking a 3-0 lead. Just before half time I did exactly what John Stones did, just inside my own half and the opponent ran onto the ball and scored. Turning round into the wind at 3-1 rather than 3-0 proved decisive. In a second half resembling the Alamo we held out at 3-3 into the final minutes, but lost it near the end. The goal against the wind was critical psychologically as much as anything. Jammed in someone's very full car on the way back I can recall Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army coming on the radio - "and I would rather be anywhere else but here today". The team that we lost to went on to win the cup and, in 17 years of playing schoolboy and men's football, I never got to play in a cup final. It was pretty much my own fault.
But the thing is, I never made that mistake again, even if the only option available to me was a rather lame hoof sideways to avoid the ball being charged down, which was John Stones's only realistic alternative to the forward pass. Remember City were losing but only by one goal with plenty of time to go. Now I'm a fan of Stones, who I think should be an automatic inclusion in England's World Cup Finals squad. I admire his calmness on the ball, but he does over do it. On one occasion notorious among Everton fans he executed three turns in his own penalty area, one of them a "Cruyff" turn and one adjacent to the six yard box. He got away with it, that time. I thought Manchester City was the right move for him as he would be encouraged to play but I also thought Guardiola would help him get the balance right.
The thing about catastrophic errors is whether you learn from them. I recall what a very good golfer said not long after I had started playing and was marvelling at the the skills of the professionals. "Well you see, Phil, by the time you were 30 just think how many hours you spent working for your O-levels, A-levels, degree and then at work. They spend that time and more on golf". And so it is with a professional footballer. It beggars belief that Stones hasn't learned this lesson before. And of course, he must have. But he knows his coach expects him to play football, all the time.
For several years the goalkeeper I played in front of was a man mountain known as Herbie. He was a great 5 a side goalscorer too, so he could play. As a schoolboy winger converted via midfield and right back into a ball playing centre half I liked to pass the ball out whenever I could. And if not that, then a daring back pass (in those days the keeper could pick it up) gave me a buzz. In the best I ever pulled off I was under pressure in the penalty area and facing my own goal, but still chipped a pass over a second opponent between me and Herbie into his hands. Not enough on it and I would have presented it to the other forward. Too much and it would have sailed over Herbie into my own net. I can still remember the daggers he glared at me before launching the ball up the pitch as he realised a quick break was on. I think Pep would have liked that. But I can still hear Herbie growling "too much football", "not across your own box" and "get rid" when he wasn't happy with what we were doing in front of him.
Sure Manchester City can get away with it against Bristol City. But they didn't against Liverpool. And I don't know if Pep pays any attention to that difference.
OK so Guardiola is at least 80% right, which is still very right. Yes they will win the Premier League at a canter. But to win clusters of trophies - they could still win all four this season, a feat never achieved by an English team before - they will need to win crunch one off cup ties. If I was a City fan, I would worry that big one off games like the one at Anfield or maybe in the future a Champions League final could be lost in the blink of an eye by "too much football".
Guardiola wants City to be the best club team in Europe, if not the world. And they might do it. But the thing is the best club side in the Europe isn't ever going to be that much better than the next half a dozen. So when you come up against one of them in a Champions League final you really can't afford mistakes near your own goal.
Interesting that Liverpool, whose goals on Sunday at Southampton were footballing beauty just as much as anything conjured by City this season, can also be flaky in defence. But it did make for a fabulous match in that head to head game at Anfield. So I suppose I'm happy for City to carry on doing what they do. It's great to watch and it gives the other team a chance.
P.S. My mate Herbie's a good guy. We also did all the finance and administration for the club between us for 5 or 6 years, leaving the team managers to get on with the football. Now in his 60s he has been coaching football for many years at one of Liverpool's pre-eminent sports and social clubs. I'm not for a moment suggesting he's as good as Pep Guardiola, but I'm a firm believer that everyone can learn something from someone else....
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