Yeh forget about totti post 2006, maybe even a year or 2 before that.. because he became more and more of a forward but totti in his number 10 days was a thing of beauty. His one touch flicked pass were just amazing. He had a much much faster brain than Zlatan as an AM. Zlatan i guess feels the need to stand on the ball and wait for the defender to come and then to beat him with a fancy dribble. Totti was very quick with his passing his movement and his passing range was in the league of Platini, Baggio , Zidane etc
It's both brain and technique
Totti had a lot more range/technique. I mean he was a pure Trequartista.
Zlatan is a forward, a technical one, but still a forward. Totti could consistently play the quick 15-20 yard pass. Zlatan doesn't which is why it's best to not isolate him uptop.
my fav zlatan moment this year was this-
And it sums up what he can do others can't. No one has his combo of size and technique. Very few players can fight off a defender, play down a ball w/ that touch and play it thru 5-10 yards.
Same can be said for his assist v. barca.... robinho brought him the ball w/ a nice dribble, zlatan had some space and played a nice short ball thru the defense.
The thing is, totti who was a natural trequartista, didn't need the space, nor the man as close to be effective.
But when Zlatan gets isolated, he dwells on the ball and wastes his physique. I mean what he was doing v. barca drove me crazy. He's so much bigger than mascerano, but if he just tries to dribble him/stand him up, he gives up that edge and mascherano owns him. Seems silly.
And while he doesn't NEED to be isolated in a 4-2-3-1, it happens a lot and reality is, unless we commit A LOT forward, it'll end up wasting him.
To build an ideal team around zlatan you want a 2 striker system.
-you want to pair him w/ a hard worker who moves a lot. Someone like Higuain would be ideal
-you want a ball-player in CM to string the side together (Xavi, pirlo etc.)
-You want an AM/winger type who drives the team forward but doesn't dwell on the ball (nedved, boateng, hamsik)
-And you want some width (Fb or winger) who can spread out play and play it effectively to him, utilizing his size in 1 v 1s
There's many ways to find these characteristics. Juve had camorenesi and zambrotta playing width, nedved cut in a lot, trevezeguet with him uptop. Inter had crespo/cruz etc. uptop, guy like stankovic was very efficient and didn't dwell, and they got amazing wingback play from maicon and co.
That's just my 2 cents on how to maximize zlatan.
STROOTMAN
muntari
