Viktor Aleksandrovich Maslov (russian: Виктор Александрович Маслов; April 27, 1910 in Moscow – May 11, 1977) was a Soviet Union, Soviet Russians, Russian Association football, footballer and Coach (sport), coach. He was especially notable during his coaching career. He won numerous Soviet Top League, USSR Championships with clubs Torpedo Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, and one with FC Ararat Yerevan. The second best coach in history of Dynamo Kyiv after Valeriy Lobanovsky.

Career

He is often seen as being one of the most innovative and influential football managers of all time. He was the first to experiment with players' nutrition, and invented the Formation (association football)#4–4–2, 4-4-2 formation, along with the notion of pressing (association football), pressing, which, in the words of Jonathan Wilson (journalist/author), Jonathan Wilson "may be seen as the birth of modern football".guardian.co.uk – The end of forward thinking
/ref> Wilson credits Maslov as one of the progenitors of the pressing game. This was a key development, as before Maslov, teams tended to allow their opponents more time on the ball, whereas Maslov's strategy of pressing denied players this time and space, and led to the game based more on speed and fitness that is common across the top European and South American leagues today.

References

Soviet footballers Soviet football managers 1910 births 1977 deaths Footballers from Moscow FC Torpedo Moscow managers FC Zimbru Chișinău managers FC SKA Rostov-on-Don managers FC Dynamo Kyiv managers FC Ararat Yerevan managers Merited Coaches of the Soviet Union Merited Coaches of Ukraine FC Torpedo NN Nizhny Novgorod players Association football midfielders FC Torpedo Moscow players {{Russia-footy-bio-stub