Fabregas on Como strategy and difficulty of Serie A: ‘Impossible to understand’

Cesc Fabregas explains how he picks players for Como and warns the tactical preparation in Serie A is so complex that at times it’s ‘impossible to understand what’s happening.’

The Spaniard has plenty of experience playing for Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea and AS Monaco, bringing all of that to help his remarkable coaching career at Como.

He took them from Serie B to Champions League qualification in the space of just two years, combining with the investment of President Mirwan Suwarso and the data partnership with Jamestown Analytics.

However, he also insists there is something the data cannot do, which is the human touch.

“The first thing we look at is the person. In my first meeting with a player I don’t speak about football. I only speak about their personal life,” Fabregas told The Athletic.

“I want to identify their mentality, explain who we are, how we do things, how we work. The players and the families are more important than anyone. You mark some clear things about the culture of the team and the club and then after that we start talking football.

“I believe in them blindly and when a coach believes blindly in his players — look, there are always things you cannot control — but you will always get the best out of the player or do better than someone who brings them in because they have good data but the coach doesn’t trust or know the player.”

A description of how many other clubs work show why he is in no rush to leave Como, where he has absolute control over the sporting side of things.

“What I don’t understand is sometimes clubs sign players without speaking to the coach or without the coach studying and speaking to the player. It’s the coach who needs to make these players play and make them better.”

Fabregas said that Serie A is like ‘a university of football’ for a coach, and even in the space of a few months, he saw that opposition teams adapted to his Como style.

“Here a lot of teams think about how to eliminate you by pressing and defending, not by attacking,” he explained.

“That means a team that wants to win needs to be ready to break down a defence that has been created to cause you pain, to kill you. This requires more attention to detail.

“How do you get away from all these duels in man-to-man with a team that physically isn’t the strongest team? We are a team with talent and technical ability. Physically we’re not animals.

“Let’s put it this way. They want to bring you into the context of the duels. They know you’re going to play. So you need to take them into positions where they’re not comfortable and try to attack their weaknesses.

“Winning in Italy, believe me, people say there are a lot of 0-0s and 1-0s, it’s difficult. Trust me, I analyse a lot of football. I watch the Bundesliga, La Liga and the Premier League. Teams defend very, very differently to how they defend in Italy.

“You watch Premier League teams, you see a structure. You see what they’re trying to do. You see the style they want to apply. Here a lot of the times it’s impossible. It’s impossible to understand what’s happening. That’s why you need to pay great attention to detail,” concluded Fabregas.