The top flight of Italian football once had a reputation for being ultra-defensive and low scoring and many football pundits still pedal this theory today. However, the reality is that this label is now just a dated cliché that does not reflect the modern game in Italy.
Bolting the door
After many Italian teams adopted and then perfected the Catenaccio (bolt) system, first used by Nereo Rocco’s Padova in the 1950s, the number of goals scored in the Serie A did decrease. The lowest ever goals-to-game ratio (1.87) occurred in the 1972/73 season. And the top 10 lowest-scoring seasons in the history of the Italian game all occurred between 1966 and 1982. This was the era when Italian football gained its reputation for being more akin to a chess match than a soccer game.
Grande Inter paved the way
When Jock Stein’s Celtic beat Helenio Herrera's ‘Grande Inter’ team in the 1967 European Cup final in Lisbon, it was reported as a victory for free-flowing attacking football over the ruthless defensive style of the Italians. At the time, the Observer newspaper reporter Hugh McIlvanney described how Herrera was “stifling the flair, imagination, boldness and spontaneity that make football what it is.” Two years earlier, he claimed Inter had won the 1965 UEFA European Cup final against Benfica by “defending with neurotic caution to protect a luckily gained one-goal lead.”
The legendary sportswriter was perhaps a little harsh on Herrera. His Inter side were defensive but also skilled in the counter-attack, and they made innovative use of overlapping full-backs to devastating effect. The style may not have been to everyone’s taste but it was effective and legitimate. And while Stein laid down the blueprint for the Total Football introduced by Rinus Michels in the 1970s, Herrera paved the way for the great Italian sides of the 1970s and 80s.
The 1970’s anomaly
Ironically, the highest-scoring Italian game of all time was played during Serie A’s lowest-scoring season. Among the economical results of the 1972/73 campaign, AC Milan’s 9-3 victory over Atalanta stands out like a beacon. The game - that later became known as “La Grande Abbuffata” (The Great Feast) - was not heralded as an entertaining spectacle by the Italian media but rather seen as an embarrassment. On the rare occasion that teams did open up a three-goal lead in 1970s Italy, they would often pull up the oars and stop trying to score out of respect for their opponent. This game seemed to break all the rules and the press reaction resembled a forensic inquest. In contrast, high scoring matches are now very common in Serie A with teams like Atalanta scoring for fun. This has made La Dea a popular choice amongst punters looking for goal
wagering options in the football betting markets.
The Sacchi revolution
Today, many people still refer to Serie A as boring. They assume that all the teams play ultra-defensive football and that Catenaccio is still a thing. In truth, the system has rarely been used since the 1980s and Italy football has continued to evolve ever since. Most notably, in the late 1980s when Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan team wowed the world with their rigid 4-4-2 system featuring zonal marking, aggressive pressing, a clever offside trap and intelligent possession play. The high-pressing that had been used effectively by the Dutch Teams was brought to Italy by Sacchi and they also set a new benchmark for athleticism. During his time in Italy, the number of goals per game began to rise as teams changed their approaches to games. This period also ushered in a golden era for Italian football.
By 1991, the goal-per-game ration in Italy had risen to 2.29 and by the end of the same decade, it stood at 2.49. Jump forward another decade at it had
risen to 2.61 in the 2009/10 season. Italian teams enjoyed much success during this period and many of the best players in the world were lured by the Serie A spotlight.
Serie A today
During the 2019/20 Serie A campaign, the ratio has risen to 2.91 goals per game - more than the Premier League (2.72). That’s an increase of more than a goal per game in 47 years. To put that in perspective, that’s an increase of nearly 300 goals per season across the league.
The influx of players from abroad and the desire of the top teams to dominate in Europe once again has brought a new dynamic to Italian football. Teams such as Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli of 2015-2018, Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio and Gian Piero Gasperini’s high scoring Atalanta are finally putting to bed the myth that Italian football is boring, as can be seen in the
BBC's match report for their 7-0 win over Torino. And they are convincing many that it is now the most entertaining league in Europe.