The Coaches | Jorge Sampaoli
The Beginnings:
Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya was born on the 13th of March 1960 in Casilda, a city in that lies 45km west of Rosario within the Santa Fe province of Argentina. Casilda is an agricultural province initially founded by a Spanish baker. It is also the birthplace of automotive entrepreneur Horacio Pagani, owner, and CEO of one world’s most iconic supercar manufacturers.
Sampaoli was a combative defensive midfielder who played with Newells Old Boys, and he signed with there Primera team in 1977. Unfortunately, he had to retire in 1979 from a fibula and tibia injury. His playing career was over at the incredibly young age of 19. Looking through the archives, he was not a standout within his tenure as a player with Newells, however as we see with many managers, early career ending injuries can in some ways act as unquenchable desire to be involved in elite football no matter the role played.
La-U & Chile:
How elite teams react and shift there intent fascinates me, It’s in these moments that I believe elite coaches, organizations, and players come into their own. With Sampaoli, he has successfully managed to do this with significant effect picking up honors both on the international stage and club stage.
To begin the journey understanding how he has done this, let us look at his three-time league championship and Copa Sudamericana winners, Universidad de Chile, or La-U as they are affectionately known in Chile.
Make no doubts about it, Sampaoli is a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa, the hallmarks of Marcelo are quite clear in Sampaolis setup, directness, and defensive structure, not to mention the love for three at the back. Sampaoli ’s admiration and adaptation of Bielsa’s shape (3–3–3–1) of which Bielsa had great success with Chile in the World Cup of 2010, delivered great flexibility in his tactical structure while coaching La-U.
The technical setup and tactical aptitude of his La-U team was something that separated them both in Chile and in the more significant South American competitions over his tenure with UDC. A testament to this was there 35 games unbeaten run in 2011 which ended up with, for the first time in the clubs history the Copa Sudamericana title and the admiration of world football as being one of the best club teams in the world. Without getting to carried away with the gravity of the Copa Sudamericana, for European reference, it would be winning the Europa League. However in South America it is not treated with such snigger as a subclass competition, it has to itself a certain grandeur, and for a team from Chile to win it, specifically how it did. It was a significant achievement.
In 2015, its the culmination of these principles that Sampaoli leads Chile to win the Copa America and positioning himself as one of the most tactically astute coaches in world football, one of his lieutenants through his La-U days was catalyst to his style, Eduardo Varga tied top goalscorer, he was the perfect foil for the enigmatic Alexis Sanchez. While the midfield maestro of Vidal, provided the metronomic transition from defense to attack.
Characteristics of Sampaoli:
That said, let’s take a look at Sampaolis structure, all-be-it there was numerous of shapes and setups depending on opposition over his tenure. His setup was usually something of a 3–4–3, or a 3–1–4(Diamond)-2
Standard back three, with the central defender sitting deeper than the other two.
One of the back three usually the right-sided central defender could push out into the middle to create positional overloads between the wing backs and central midfield players.
Wingbacks tended to play high up the pitch and were attack-minded. There starting positions where one closer to the touchlines and they attempted to stretch the play to create channels internally on the pitch for vertical passes into the AAA. They at times would look to build by creating overlaps
Central Midfield structure is split into two groups; one will occupy the space and hold, as to act as the pivot in the top of defensive build up or the bottom of attacking transitional play. While the other central midfielder will push forward looking to be found in the half-space behind the forwards, which would put him in the shadow space of the opposition midfield. Sampaoli utilised the players he had to create this, When with La-U they would rotate these roles, however later in his Seville time he would give more specific instructions to his central midfielders.
Wide forwards were critical in the attacking play of La-U, they were to be direct, and also allowed to move centrally when the wingback moved forward to overload. This was all done in sync with the central forward dropping deep to play in a false nine role, so that he could link up play with the central midfield but also as a trap to suck out the opposition center backs.
With the Chile national team the blueprint remained the same; however, it was here that the pressing style of Bielsa was built upon. It could be argued that Sampaoli Chile vs. Bielsa Chile was a more pragmatic one in the build-up, however, in front third pressure they echoed the 2010 team and improved as the player base matured.
Sampaoli likes his teams to press in a very high block, and he plays with three advanced players although there are various permutations to his tactical structure (3–4–3 / 3–1–3–1–2) the role of the center forward to drop into the midfield and the instruction to the wingbacks to cut inside created runs in behind. His defensive pressure within the first third of the field is built upon three triggers.
- A pass is played to the center back and his back to play, i.e., facing his goalkeeper.
- A pass is played to the fullback or winger, and they are close to the touchline.
- A pass is played to a central midfielder, and he is facing his own goal.
One of the consistencies to his triggers is the positioning of the opposition, this is key to getting closer to the opposition, and it is something that modern day footballers need to be conscious of. Even in my coaching, I can’t stress the amount of time I put into making sure guys receive with the right body positioning, even if unpressured.
With Sampaoli — he uses the lack of visibility the opposition will have at that moment to promote competitive pressure on all players. More importantly, the tendency is for first three players to pressure the ball and for another 2 or 3 players to hold off slightly adding depth to the press and preventing an easy pass out.
What will Sampaoli do in Europe
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