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In football like in any other sport or discipline, there's no accounting for taste. There is a contingent coming from FC Barcelona and Arsenal who believe that the touch based football is the most effective and the most spectacular, but there are many more who actually enjoy the more defensive well organized style like the one Diego Simeone makes his players generate. The truth of the matter is that both styles have been proven effective and no one has the absolute truth.
But for many Italian managers in football today, Simeone's style seems refreshing in a time where the tiki-taka has ruled the world for the past years. The newest figure in football who has praised 'Cholo' for his style, is Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni, who gets really bored by Guardiola or Barcelona's style of passing the ball all over the field. At first he didn't want to name any names, but his message was loud and clear against Bayern and Barcelona.
Talking to AS, Trapattoni said: "I'm not going to name names, but there are some teams which play the ball around for half an hour without a single shot on goal... that sends me to sleep. I prefer Simeone's way - a thousand times. He's someone who goes right down to the grain and always promises a thrilling spectacle with his intensity. Saying that his side plays badly is a massive lie. The strength to rise to the occasion and pull through in these big matches was ingrained in the DNA of my Bayern. For Simeone it's going to be a very tough match, but anything could happen. Ninety minutes at Bayern's ground is a very long time."
Photo credit: Atletico Madrid
