Gipo Viani

Giuseppe "Gipo" Viani (13 September 1909 – 6 January 1969) was an Italian football player and manager from the Province of Treviso who played as a midfielder.

Playing career

Viani was born Treviso. He played his entire career in the Italian football system; he is best known for his time with Ambrosiana and Lazio.

Managerial career

After retiring from playing, Viani went on to manage many Italian football clubs, including A.C. Milan, Roma and the Italy national team amongst others; he coached Italy at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, alongside Nereo Rocco, helping the team to a fourth-place finish in the tournament.

Style of management

During his time with Salernitana in the 1940s, Viani devised a tactical system which came to be known in the Italian media as 'vianema', which was influenced by Karl Rappan's ''verrou'', and which in turn also inspired the Italian ''catenaccio'' defensive strategy later popularised by Rocco and Helenio Herrera. The system originated from an idea that one of the club's players – Antonio Valese – posed to the manager. Viani altered the English WM system – known as the ''sistema'' in Italy – by having his centre-half-back – known as the ''centromediano metodista'' or " metodista," in Italy – retreat into the defensive line to act as an additional defender and mark an opposing centre-forward, instead leaving his full-back (which, at the time, was similar to the modern centre-back role) free to function as what was essentially a precursor to the sweeper role, creating a 1–3–3–3 formation; he occasionally also used a defender in the centre-forward role, and wearing the number nine shirt, to track back and mark the opposing forwards, thus freeing up the full-backs form their marking duties. His team would defend behind the ball and subsequently look to score from counter–attacks. Although this ultra-defensive strategy was initially criticised by members of the Italian press, including journalist Gianni Brera, Andrea Schianchi of ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' notes that this modification was designed to help smaller teams in Italy, as the man–to–man system often put players directly against one another, favouring the larger and wealthier teams with stronger individual players.

Honours

As a Player

Inter Milan
*Serie A: 1929–30

As a Manager

Salernitana
*Serie B: 1947–48

Roma
*Serie B: 1951–52

Milan
*Serie A: 1956–57, 1958–59
*European Cup runner-up: 1957–58

Individual

*Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viani, Giuseppe
1909 births
1969 deaths
Footballers from Treviso
Italian men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Serie A players
Treviso FBC 1993 players
Inter Milan players
SS Lazio players
US Livorno 1915 players
Juventus FC players
AS Siracusa players
US Salernitana 1919 players
Italian football managers
Benevento Calcio managers
US Salernitana 1919 managers
Lucchese 1905 managers
Palermo FC managers
AS Roma managers
Bologna FC 1909 managers
AC Milan managers
Hellas Verona FC managers
Italy national football team managers
20th-century Italian sportsmen