Chiellini: Guardiola's tactics ruined Italian defending

Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini reckons the new wave of Italian defenders have lost the magic of the old generation due, in part, to the kind of tactics that managers like Pep Guardiola have implemented to modernize the game.

Specifically, defenders value and focus more on honing their skills in areas like ball distribution and passing instead of man-marking and spacing.

"Guardiolismo has ruined many Italian defenders a bit - now defenders know how to set the tone of play and they can spread the ball, but they don't know how to mark," Chiellini said, as quoted by ESPN FC. "Unfortunately, that's the way it is.

"When I was young, we used to do drills to get a feel for the man you were marking. Nowadays, from crosses, Italian defenders - and I can only really talk for Italian defenders, I am only relatively interested about foreign players - don't mark their man.

"It's a great pity because we're losing our DNA a bit and some of those characteristics which had made us excel in the world."