AC Milan have hired renowned set-piece specialist coach Gianni Vio in an attempt to improve their efficiency in dead-ball situations, which was one of the weaker aspects of the team last season.
Formerly of Catania and Fiorentina, Vio has a reputation for being one of the best, if not the best dead-ball strategist in Europe.
With a sole focus on the attacking side, Vio will be tasked to work with at AC Milan, with the team boasting of a modest record in dead-ball situations during the 2013/14 Serie A season.
Of the 57 goals scored by AC Milan last season, 26% of them (18) came from set-pieces, the equal-fourth best record in the league. Of them, six came from corners, five from direct free kicks, four from indirect free kicks and three from penalties. Serie A Champions Juventus boasted of the best record for set-piece goals in the league with 23.
AC Milan mostly scored from open play (66%), but when you consider that between 40-50% of opportunities at goal come from dead-ball situations, there is clearly much scope for improvement.
“The thing I liked the most is the enthusiasm with which [Filippo] Inzaghi asked me to come and work at Milan,” he told the club website.
“Now my focus is on getting to know the players better, how they play and their characteristics.
“I have always focused on attacking dead-ball situations, we are lucky enough to have Tassotti on the defensive part.”
Vio is lucky to have two of Italy’s great set-piece specialists in Mario Balotelli and Riccardo Montolivo, with Keisuke Honda also quite handy with the dead-ball.
Balotelli, should he remain with the club, is a deadly direct free-kick tacker, while Montolivo and Honda’s strengths are at the corners and should be utilised effectively by the new coach.
AC Milan are very much a ‘work in progress’ under Inzaghi, and while the club and their fans are not used to that tag, they are going to have to be patient and potentially endure a rough patch in the near future.
The fact of the matter is that AC Milan are no longer the European powerhouse that they aspire to be, and that does not sit well with the board, fans and players alike.
If all are patient with coaches like Vio there is a chance of huge rewards for the Rossoneri however, as evidence might show by the tactician’s coaching history.
When he arrived at Catania in 2008, he made the set-piece the hallmark of their game, with the fans dubbing him ‘Il Maghetto’ or the Little Wizard. Vio sets out in making the set-piece one of the grand illusions of football, with dummy runners, blocks or false walls put in place in order to create a chance.
At Fiorentina he produced much of the same, getting the best out of the likes of Gonzalo Rodiguez, Stefan Savic and Facundo Roncaglia in attacking set-piece situations, and making it a strength of the Viola game.
Creating new routines all the time, Vio has written several books, among them a book called “Dead-balls: the 15-goal striker,” with the title mirroring the description of Vio by former Catania coach Walter Zenga. “He isn’t just a free-kick wizard. He is like having a 15- or 20-goal striker in the team,” Zenga stated. “A 20-goal a season player can get injured. He can get suspended. But there are set-pieces in every game. Always. And he knows how to exploit them best. He’s very skilled at it. He manages to get players scoring who otherwise wouldn’t score.”
He brings an unorthodox methodology to set-pieces by using the art of deception rather than plain structures. Vio’s aim is to disorientate the opponents and catch them by surprise, and the surprise factor will be crucial to an AC Milan side that has been so predictable in front of goal last season.
Many AC Milan fans have grown very skeptical of any signings the club now makes, and rightly so, but this man will in no doubt have a profound impact on the club’s use of set-piece situations.
Football’s version of David Copperfield he might be, but there is not doubting that his work is very much ‘real’.
