He's Beckenbauer on steroids, where the general tactic boils down to 'you guys go out there and play football'. The players follow him because he's a walking myth and a club legend, he in turn allows for a maximum of individual creativity, and the entire thing just works. Of course, this approach flies in the face of coaches who try to micro-regulate every path and tactic-nerds who confuse football with quantum physics, like the Michael Cox dude quoted above, who think the essence of football is writing 400 page essays about overloading half-spaces. Volker Finke once called this approach 'Heroenfußball' and used it as a pejorative word, but 3 CLs speak for themselves no matter how you slice it.
He's the Anti-Bielsa. If there's one thing to learn from Zidane, it's that football is not played by robots, that concept-football only works to a certain point and that individual brilliance and creativity makes the difference. Thanks for remindung us, Zizou. Also, go fuck yourself.
