Eternity RPC Board
''L'Arte di Arrangiarsi''
![[Image: m9CW0Wg.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/m9CW0Wg.jpg)
L’Arte di arrangiarsi is a famous Italian expression, the art of surviving, popularized by a 1950’s classic Italian movie with the same title. The main character of that movie was an opportunistic politician, who constantly changes his political colour depending on his needs and the situation. In Italian football, the expression is sometimes applied to teams that, despite having the odds against them, somehow manage to get away with a result. Perhaps the most famous example in recent memory was the historic Euro 2000 semi-final of the Netherlands against Italy.
The Netherlands was one of the favourites for the title that year, boasting a golden generation of players and having crushed one team after another with big numbers. In the 35th minute, Italian wing-back Zambrotta took a red card, and Italy had to ‘survive’ against the Netherlands. Despite several penalties, shots hitting the post, and many scoring chances, the Dutch simply failed to score. The Italians survived until the shootouts, and they managed to win those – progressing to the final, against all odds.
![[Image: NH32ebu.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/NH32ebu.jpg)
Inter Milan vs Napoli
With my Inter Milan project, I was facing Napoli at the beginning of the season. Due to my Oil money, Inter has returned to the top of the Italian league, being somewhere below Juventus, but above Napoli and AS Roma.
Before 60,000 spectators in the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, I intended to demonstrate a new way of playing that the team had been working on during the pre-season. I had abandoned my rather attacking 3-5-2 system in favour of a more controlled 4-4-2 system. Where my 3-5-2 relied on fast-paced wingers and creativity from the central midfield – and breaking open defences by force if necessary, my 4-4-2 system is based on intelligence and craftiness. I must give credit to Italy and Marcello Lippi’s 4-4-2 that won the world cup in 2006 though, for the inspiration.
Before the game, one of my analysts told me that one of the weaknesses of Napoli is that its players have poor concentration and tend to concede in the first 15 minutes of the game often. I did not make any specific adjustments for that, but I was confident that if Napoli showed a lapse in concentration, my team would exploit it.
That opportunity arose in the 2nd minute of the game. After Napoli’s first attack broke down in my half, my team brought it to Napoli’s half where Marco Verratti was looking for options. Eder, one of the strikers, dropped far back into midfield, completely dragging a defender out of position. Verratti played to him, Eder gave it back to Verratti, who then sent a long ball to the right flank where Candreva was making a run into the newly created space. On the side of Napoli’s penalty area Candreva looked for a low cross and found Icardi, unmarked, in front of Napoli’s goal. I couldn’t have wished for a better start.
For the next half hour then, it was Napoli’s turn, often trying to attack down their left flank with Mertens cutting inside for a shot on goal. Inter Milan was happy to let Napoli try to find room for shots on goal, but they were completely unable to get through the crowded area in front of my goal. After a while, Davide Santon took an injury, but I had to keep him on because I had no substitutes for him due to injuries. After 30 minutes, my destroyer in midfield, Gary Medel, committed a horror tackle and was sent off with a red card.
This considerably changed my game plan. Instead of being comfortably in charge of the game, I now had to find away to defend that 1-0 lead with a man down until the bitter end. With Italian nationals like Bonucci, Verratti, Candreva, Santon, and Darmian on the pitch, I had to place my hopes on their survival mentality, the Italian art.
I took off Eder for Kondogbia, a tall Frenchman with athleticism, and opted for a 4-4-1. When Marcello Lippi suffered a similar scenario in 2006, he switched to a rather daring 4-3-2 system. But I’m not Lippi, and I just wanted to keep my double defensive lines of four. Why keep on a striker with a 1-0 lead?
It was rather easy to hold out until half time, during which I gave the players a morale boost in the dressing room to keep fighting. In the second half, Inter Milan withdrew further and further, inflicting some injuries here and there, giving away free kicks and corner kicks – but never letting any Napoli players get through. I left Icardi alone up the pitch and instructed my left winger, Douglas Costa, to quickly charge forward if the team had the ball, and hopefully snag a second goal on the counter-attack. In the middle of the second half, this miraculously resulted in three modest scoring opportunities – also thanks to the stupidity of Napoli’s defenders. Despite being a man down, Icardi continued to be a threat to Napoli and ensured they could not go all-out on attack.
Napoli meanwhile had switched from 4-3-3 to playing 4-2-4, thus playing 1v1 against my defenders. In the 75th minute, they nearly succeeded in breaking through my defence. It was therefore time to resort to rigorous measures and to protect my goal by all means necessary for the remaining minutes. I took off Candreva and added a fifth defender, Davide Bettella. The boy was only 16 years old, but all my other central defenders were injured. It was a gamble: I could retain my 4-4-1 shape, with the risk of Napoli breaking through; or I could take the risk of adding an inexperienced youth player, hoping that the numerical superiority in defence would compensate his individual lack of experience.
From the 80th minute until the last, Napoli besieged my goal with long shots, crosses and corner kicks. But they all missed, and on several occasions my goalkeeper saved the day. The asymmetric 5-3-1 seemed to hold out, but then the referee gave Napoli another corner kick, 30 seconds after the game should’ve ended. Icardi meanwhile was playing for dead at the other end of the pitch to waste time. The corner kick failed and then the whistle sounded. We had survived and triumphed! Of course after the match, all the media could talk about was Medel’s horror tackle, and my team’s ‘dirty’ and ‘abrasive’ style of play. Even the Napoli coach applauded the ‘combative’ mentality of my players. Were there tactical fouls? Yes. Did players take injuries on both sides? Yes. Did we intend to play ‘dirty’? No. But the circumstances dictated it. It was a matter of survival. This Inter Milan possesses that killer-mentality that I’m looking for.
L’Arte di arrangiarsi is a famous Italian expression, the art of surviving, popularized by a 1950’s classic Italian movie with the same title. The main character of that movie was an opportunistic politician, who constantly changes his political colour depending on his needs and the situation. In Italian football, the expression is sometimes applied to teams that, despite having the odds against them, somehow manage to get away with a result. Perhaps the most famous example in recent memory was the historic Euro 2000 semi-final of the Netherlands against Italy.
The Netherlands was one of the favourites for the title that year, boasting a golden generation of players and having crushed one team after another with big numbers. In the 35th minute, Italian wing-back Zambrotta took a red card, and Italy had to ‘survive’ against the Netherlands. Despite several penalties, shots hitting the post, and many scoring chances, the Dutch simply failed to score. The Italians survived until the shootouts, and they managed to win those – progressing to the final, against all odds.
Inter Milan vs Napoli
With my Inter Milan project, I was facing Napoli at the beginning of the season. Due to my Oil money, Inter has returned to the top of the Italian league, being somewhere below Juventus, but above Napoli and AS Roma.
Before 60,000 spectators in the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, I intended to demonstrate a new way of playing that the team had been working on during the pre-season. I had abandoned my rather attacking 3-5-2 system in favour of a more controlled 4-4-2 system. Where my 3-5-2 relied on fast-paced wingers and creativity from the central midfield – and breaking open defences by force if necessary, my 4-4-2 system is based on intelligence and craftiness. I must give credit to Italy and Marcello Lippi’s 4-4-2 that won the world cup in 2006 though, for the inspiration.
Before the game, one of my analysts told me that one of the weaknesses of Napoli is that its players have poor concentration and tend to concede in the first 15 minutes of the game often. I did not make any specific adjustments for that, but I was confident that if Napoli showed a lapse in concentration, my team would exploit it.
That opportunity arose in the 2nd minute of the game. After Napoli’s first attack broke down in my half, my team brought it to Napoli’s half where Marco Verratti was looking for options. Eder, one of the strikers, dropped far back into midfield, completely dragging a defender out of position. Verratti played to him, Eder gave it back to Verratti, who then sent a long ball to the right flank where Candreva was making a run into the newly created space. On the side of Napoli’s penalty area Candreva looked for a low cross and found Icardi, unmarked, in front of Napoli’s goal. I couldn’t have wished for a better start.
For the next half hour then, it was Napoli’s turn, often trying to attack down their left flank with Mertens cutting inside for a shot on goal. Inter Milan was happy to let Napoli try to find room for shots on goal, but they were completely unable to get through the crowded area in front of my goal. After a while, Davide Santon took an injury, but I had to keep him on because I had no substitutes for him due to injuries. After 30 minutes, my destroyer in midfield, Gary Medel, committed a horror tackle and was sent off with a red card.
This considerably changed my game plan. Instead of being comfortably in charge of the game, I now had to find away to defend that 1-0 lead with a man down until the bitter end. With Italian nationals like Bonucci, Verratti, Candreva, Santon, and Darmian on the pitch, I had to place my hopes on their survival mentality, the Italian art.
I took off Eder for Kondogbia, a tall Frenchman with athleticism, and opted for a 4-4-1. When Marcello Lippi suffered a similar scenario in 2006, he switched to a rather daring 4-3-2 system. But I’m not Lippi, and I just wanted to keep my double defensive lines of four. Why keep on a striker with a 1-0 lead?
It was rather easy to hold out until half time, during which I gave the players a morale boost in the dressing room to keep fighting. In the second half, Inter Milan withdrew further and further, inflicting some injuries here and there, giving away free kicks and corner kicks – but never letting any Napoli players get through. I left Icardi alone up the pitch and instructed my left winger, Douglas Costa, to quickly charge forward if the team had the ball, and hopefully snag a second goal on the counter-attack. In the middle of the second half, this miraculously resulted in three modest scoring opportunities – also thanks to the stupidity of Napoli’s defenders. Despite being a man down, Icardi continued to be a threat to Napoli and ensured they could not go all-out on attack.
Napoli meanwhile had switched from 4-3-3 to playing 4-2-4, thus playing 1v1 against my defenders. In the 75th minute, they nearly succeeded in breaking through my defence. It was therefore time to resort to rigorous measures and to protect my goal by all means necessary for the remaining minutes. I took off Candreva and added a fifth defender, Davide Bettella. The boy was only 16 years old, but all my other central defenders were injured. It was a gamble: I could retain my 4-4-1 shape, with the risk of Napoli breaking through; or I could take the risk of adding an inexperienced youth player, hoping that the numerical superiority in defence would compensate his individual lack of experience.
From the 80th minute until the last, Napoli besieged my goal with long shots, crosses and corner kicks. But they all missed, and on several occasions my goalkeeper saved the day. The asymmetric 5-3-1 seemed to hold out, but then the referee gave Napoli another corner kick, 30 seconds after the game should’ve ended. Icardi meanwhile was playing for dead at the other end of the pitch to waste time. The corner kick failed and then the whistle sounded. We had survived and triumphed! Of course after the match, all the media could talk about was Medel’s horror tackle, and my team’s ‘dirty’ and ‘abrasive’ style of play. Even the Napoli coach applauded the ‘combative’ mentality of my players. Were there tactical fouls? Yes. Did players take injuries on both sides? Yes. Did we intend to play ‘dirty’? No. But the circumstances dictated it. It was a matter of survival. This Inter Milan possesses that killer-mentality that I’m looking for.