Helenio Herrera

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Lore & Background

During his managerial career, Herrera won four La Liga titles in Spain (with Atlético Madrid and Barcelona) and three Serie A titles in Italy with Inter. He also guided Inter to European glory, winning two consecutive European Cups, among several other honours. He is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Herrera was arguably the first manager to collect credit for his teams' performances, in the process becoming a superstar in the world of football. Up to that time, managers were more marginal figures in a team. All teams throughout Europe were known for their headline-grabbing individual players, e.g. Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, whereas Inter during the 1960s is still referred to as Herrera's Inter.

In Their Own Story

Herrera's standard formation at Inter was the 5–3–2 system, which almost always included a sweeper (usually the team's captain, Armando Picchi), as well as four man-marking defenders. He was openly dismissive of teams that had an obsession for dominating ball possession, declaring that 'the ball always moves further, and more quickly, when there isn't a player behind it'. Although Herrera's Barcelona side was known for playing a fluid, attacking brand of football, his pragmatic Catenaccio tactics at Inter were often criticised for producing few goals, and for being dull, overly defensive, or even destructive; Herrera and several of Inter's players at the time refuted these claims, however, with Herrera later stating: 'The problem is that most of the ones who copied me copied me wrongly. They forgot to include the attacking principles that my Catenaccio included. I had Picchi as a sweeper, yes, but I also had Facchetti, the first full-back to score as many goals as a forward'. After successive European Cups in 1964 and 1965, Helenio Herrera's Catenaccio style of play suffered a massive blow in the 1967 final in Lisbon, when they came up against Scottish champions Celtic of Glasgow, – nicknamed the Lisbon Lions – who consisted of a group of players who were all born within 30 miles of Celtic's home ground, Celtic Park. Celtic won the game 2–1 after coming back from a seventh-minute Mazzola penalty, with many pundits claiming this was a 'victory for football' against the defensively-destructive Catenaccio.

Reader's Guide

Herrera's standard formation at Inter was the 5–3–2 system, which almost always included a sweeper (usually the team's captain, Armando Picchi), as well as four man-marking defenders. He was openly dismissive of teams that had an obsession for dominating ball possession, declaring that 'the ball always moves further, and more quickly, when there isn't a player behind it'. Although Herrera's Barcelona side was known for playing a fluid, attacking brand of football, his pragmatic Catenaccio tactics at Inter were often criticised for producing few goals, and for being dull, overly defensive, or even destructive; Herrera and several of Inter's players at the time refuted these claims, however, with Herrera later stating: 'The problem is that most of the ones who copied me copied me wrongly. They forgot to include the attacking principles that my Catenaccio included. I had Picchi as a sweeper, yes, but I also had Facchetti, the first full-back to score as many goals as a forward'. Aside from the team's defensive strength and organisation when defending behind the ball, some of the key elements of Herrera's Grande Inter side of the 1960s were the use of vertical football and very quick, efficient counter-attacks, which allowed the team to score with few touches. This was made possible due to Herrera's use of very quick and energetic, attacking full-backs, such as Giacinto Facchetti, and Tarcisio Burgnich, who would often detach themselves from the back-line, and catch their opponents by surprise with their overlapping runs. Furthermore, the team's main creative force, Spanish deep-lying playmaker Luis Suárez, played a fundamental part in Inter's success during this period, due to his outstanding work-rate, technical skills, vision and passing range; these attributes enabled him to aid the team to win back possession, and subsequently launch quick attacks with accurate long balls out to the on-running full-backs, who would often go on either to score or assist the strikers.

Did You Know?

• Herrera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to immigrant parents from Spain. His father Francisco, a carpenter, was an exiled anarchist from Andalusia; his mother, Maria Gavilán Martínez, was a cleaner.
• He pioneered the use of psychological motivating skills – his pep-talk phrases are still quoted today, e.g. 'he who doesn't give it all, gives nothing', 'with ten our team plays better than with eleven' and 'Class + Prep
• He enforced a strict discipline code, forbidding players to drink or smoke and controlling their diet – once at Inter, he suspended a player after telling the press 'we came to play in Rome' instead of 'we came to win in
• He introduced the ritiro, a pre-match remote country hotel retreat that started with the collection of players on Thursday to prepare for a Sunday game.
• He was also one of the first managers to call on the support of the 'twelfth player' – the spectators. While indirectly, this led to the appearance of the first Ultras movements in the late 60s.