Particular focus is paid to the 1995 Champions League Final, in which Van Gaal’s Ajax, a side littered with star names such as Edgar Davids, Jari Litmanen, Clarence Seedorf and Edwin Van der Sar to name just a few, triumphed over Fabio Capello’s AC Milan. Both men had immense impacts on modern European football, and analysis of their tactics is interspersed with anecdotes of different players, teams, and coaches. This growth is chronicled by Michael Cox in Zonal Marking, a title inspired by a tactical change that has emerged and become more popular in this country, much to the malignment of some dinosaur pundits! Unlike his previous book The Mixer– a thematic look at different players, managers, and events throughout the Premier League era – this edition takes a different approach, breaking down the period from 1992 to today into seven ‘ four-year cycles’ in which Cox argues one country has had a dominant period over their competitors for tactical reasons.įor example, the first period, 1992-1996, looks at football in the Netherlands and the success that Louis Van Gaal and Johan Cruyff had with Ajax and Barcelona, respectively.
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