There is an old saying in football that behind every successful team there is a coach. How true in Delhi Dynamos FC’s case as fans from all over the country have gone gaga over some eye-catching, attacking football from the Lions this Hero Indian Super League season, and head coach Gianluca Zambrotta has undoubtedly been the architect of their second successive semis qualification.After the departure of marquee player-cum-coach for last season, Roberto Carlos, a void was felt in the team. Carlos had just guided Delhi into their maiden semi-finals and at that time it appeared the Lions will have a tough time finding a suitable replacement for the legendary Brazilian.However, to the delight of fans, in came Zambrotta, former FIFA World Cup winner with Italy and former player with Juventus, Barcelona and AC Milan. An amazing defender in his playing days - no doubting that - but time and again it has been seen that good players do not always make good coaches. Especially in a league like the ISL where one has to find the correct combination of players and their formation in a short span of time. The demands are indeed high. Once you fall behind in the race, it is very hard to claw back into contention. Having all that in mind, boy, has Zambrotta done well!Zambrotta’s men started off the league campaign well, with a 3-1 trouncing of last year’s champions Chennaiyin FC. However, all they got from their next five fixtures were just four points. It was at this point that everyone seriously started doubting Delhi’s semis credentials as Zambrotta felt the heat.However, it turned out that far from buckling under pressure, the enigmatic Italian managed to mould his team into a goal-hungry, destructive unit that tore apart opposition defences. He showed his faith in Brazilian Marcelinho and was duly rewarded. The forward showed amazing attacking flair with his goals and assists and is currently the highest scorer in the league with nine goals, and his five assists in the league is also joint-highest alongside team-mate Florent Malouda and FC Pune City playmaker Jonatan Lucca.Apart from Marcelinho, Zambrotta also made sure that Kean Lewis, marquee man Malouda and Ghanaian Richard Gadze featured regularly and performed at their optimum level. Together, this fearsome quartet has scored 21 out of Delhi’s 27 goals and each of them have quite a few assists to their name. The 27 goals scored by Delhi have, by far, been the highest in the league so far this season.Delhi’s success on the attacking front is mainly down to Zambrotta making sure each player is comfortable in his own natural position and his formations are such that there is plenty of support for the forwards, who are fed constantly with balls from a busy midfield.After that initial stumble, Delhi have only gone from strength to strength with their razor sharp attack and their Italian coach has to be hailed for getting all his combinations right and turning Delhi into serious title contenders.One of their highly-lauded performances came against Atlético de Kolkata, where they played the entire second half with a man down and were also a goal down twice, having missed a penalty earlier in the match. But they managed to claw themselves back to a 2-2 draw. After the match midfielder Milan Singh revealed how Zambrotta’s pep talk at the break had spurred them on to play the way they did in the second half. “The coach said that we have to do our best and not give up and show that we are not one man down, so we have do our best.” That is Zambrotta for you, relentless and unyielding.” I think our coach is really experienced and he knows football very well, especially how the back-line works. The team is defending well as well as scoring a lot of goals. Under him it has been a very nice learning experience for me,” Milan eulogised his coach in another one of his interviews later in the league.Zambrotta has his focus on the semi-finals now. Speaking to the media after their last game of the league stage against Mumbai City FC, the 39-year-old made it clear as to what he was eyeing next now that the team had reached the semis. “The experience has been very good and I am happy with the ISL and my target was to reach the semi-finals and we have done that, so now we have to change the target and try to reach the final,” he said.Those comments should worry Kerala Blasters FC, Delhi’s opponents in the semis. It will take a heck of a performance from Steve Coppell’s men to get the better of Zambrotta’s attacking style of play.
