Football’s unsung heroes – ‘Il Maghetto’ or the Little Wizard Gianni Vio!

The Italian who has

revolutionized set-pieces!

For many people it’s Gianni Vio?? WHO?

But I suggest you read on to know about one of the most important innovators in modern football.

Set pieces have become one of the most important factors in a game and he is THE set-piece coach
who has revolutionized set piece especially free—kick routines!

BIOGRAPHY:

At 50 years of age he was working at Unicredit bank and used to dream up set-piece routines during
his day job as a banker in Mestre, Venice.

It was this passion for set-pieces that prompted him to launch a website detailing all his ideas. The
website lead to a book. As per Vio, set pieces are not only a tactical job, but also a psychological one,
that is the basis of "Più 30 per percent", the 2004 book written together with the Venetian
psychologist Alessandro Tettamanzi, which today represents the milestone for anyone who wants to
study the patterns on inactive balls.

The book led to an email from ex Italy and Inter Milan goalkeeper Walter Zenga.

Zenga had read Vio’s website and was intrigued and the pair kept in contact regularly exchanging
schemes and routines. Vio’s big break came when Zenga took over as manager of Catania in April
2008.

Zenga persuaded the owner to hire Vio and fly him down from Venice to take set-piece sessions. Vio
was a success – launching a decade-long career in the professional game in the process.

When he arrived at Catania in 2008, he made the set-piece the hallmark of their game, with the fans
dubbing him ‘Il Maghetto’ or the Little Wizard. Vio sets out in making the set-piece one of the grand
illusions of football, with dummy runners, blocks or false walls put in place in order to create a
chance.

His impact was immediate. In the first game of the Zenga era at the club, Catania scored twice from
corner routines in a 3-0 win against Napoli, setting the team on its way to survival. They became a
hallmark of their play the following season. In November, for instance, Catania would have drawn at
home to Cagliari and Torino had it not been for Vio's expertise. They won 2-1 and 3-2 respectively
instead with decisive goals scored late on directly from set-pieces, gathering six points rather than
two.

People started to wonder who or what could be behind Catania's success. Not least because the
winner against Torino had caused a sensation.

Catania had won a free-kick from 25-yards out. Giuseppe Mascara stood over it. Torino formed a
wall, but as the referee blew his whistle, six Catania players moved. Two shifted across the face of
the area. Four dropped in and set up another 'false' wall. As the kick is taken the Catania wall in front
of the goalkeeper runs forward (so they won’t be caught offside), the front wall splits – with one
player looping round to get on the end of any rebound or spill from the goalkeeper. Mascara then
shot and scored.

In 2009, he showed another beautiful motif – Cagliari was playing Catania - Cagliari put up a one-man
wall in addition to main wall (Check pic) and Catania had 2 players behind it. Upon the kick being
taken, one of the players in the main wall runs the opposite direction the Cagliari players are
expecting him to run. The 2 players behind the single man wall start their run into the box, whilst the
player running short receives the ball. A simple flick over the top to the 2 runners to convert. A
flawless routine.

Zenga had tried to keep Vio a secret, but he couldn't. Hailed as Il Maghetto or the Little Wizard,
though not before insisting to Il Corriere della Sera that "there's nothing magic to it", all of a sudden
Vio was famous in Italy for being a set-piece guru. "The club has understood how important it is to
develop different strategies on dead-balls, seeing that from these situations 40 to 50 per cent of
goalscoring chances are born," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

False walls, decoy runners and screens gave a whole new dimension to dead-ball situations in Serie A
and opposing teams just did not know what had hit them.

Coming up with routines all the time, Vio has since written another book called "Dead-balls: the 15-
goal striker".

A long-time collaborator of Zenga's, he followed Zenga’s second in command Vincenzo Montella

from Catania to Fiorentina 2012 summer and his influence was felt in their renaissance. Exceeding
the provocative title of his first book, WhoScored figures tell us that they scored 38 per cent of their
goals in Serie A from set-pieces and have recorded no fewer than 13 in all competitions.

At Fiorentina he produced much of the same, getting the best out of the likes of Gonzalo Rodiguez,
Stefan Savic and Facundo Roncaglia in attacking set-piece situations, and making it a strength of the
Viola game. Of their 12 goalscorers, the joint second best among them was centre-back Gonzalo
Rodriguez with four, followed by fellow defenders Stefan Savic and Facundo Roncaglia with two
each. Viola scored 29 goals from set-pieces, the second-highest in Europe’s top leagues that season.

following Vio's summer arrival from AC Milan, only five Championship teams scored more than
Brentford's 10 set-piece goals in 2015-16 season. Twenty-seven per cent of their goals came from
dead-ball situations.

He has not enjoyed the same success with all the teams – his tenure in Milan and Leeds were not
very successful despite getting early success.

ANALYSIS OF VIO’S STRATEGY:

Post Catania, he has worked with clubs like Milan, Fiorentina, Brentford, Leeds United! He is
currently part of SPAL technical team in Serie A.

The master of set-piece confusion, Vio has rightfully been praised for his eye-opening contribution to
the modern game. He brings an unorthodox methodology to set-pieces by using the art of deception
rather than plain structures. Vio’s aim is to disorientate the opponents and catch them by surprise.

Vio concentrates solely on attacking set-pieces. Why? Simply because "there's an infinite number of
routines. It's enough to think that there are 4,830 for corner kicks alone." How can you plan to
defend them all? How, if you never use the same one again, can you really know what to expect?
"We always try to vary the routines, looking to be unpredictable," Vio claimed. "During the game,
teams are lined up on the basis of various roles [players for the most part are in fixed positions], but
set-pieces allow you to mix them up again and disorientate the opponent."

The unknown forms a large part of Vio's approach. "Ninety per cent" of it, he claims, is psychological.
Making the opponent think they know what's coming and where from with football's equivalent of
smoke and mirrors - decoy or dummy runners, screens or false walls to create an opening or a
mismatch - it's clear that set-pieces to him are no different from the construction of an illusion, a
grand deception.

Vio's is the art of 'organised confusion' and he is the undisputed Master of It.

Vio is modest enough to admit that "those who really make the difference are the players." He's right
of course, but his status as an innovator shouldn't be underestimated, nor should his ability to
explain and coach a routine so that theory is turned into successful practice.

It’s clear after looking at the routines that Vio has a few key components that make up his philosophy
this early on in his career.

The first is the free-kick screen. This is something so simple and obviously effective! As the years
have gone by we are seeing it more, but not nearly to the same extent that it SHOULD be done – it’s
fairly common to have at least one offensive player amongst the defensive wall, but teams should
also always place a screen in front of the goalkeeper, the shot is going to be taken – why not help out
the kick-taker as much as you can?

The next key component is the back post. It’s a recurring part of all of Vio’s routines looked at so far
to have at least one person attacking the back post. It’s this player that will be most likely to have
lost their marker (linked to the next key component) and can either get on the end of a good delivery
or slot home from any spills or rebound from the goalkeeper further enhancing the chances of
success.

The final component that’s emerged in this early stage is that of chaos. Vio seemingly looks to create
as much chaos and confusion in the opposition defence as possible, creating scenarios they either
don’t know how to deal with – such as the free-kick screen or players running out of the box when
the ball is delivered into the box or simply can’t deal with like spacing players out (which will spread
the defence out) or taking the free-kick quickly.

Gianni Vio has revolutionized the art of taking set-pieces and as imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, his imitators are many!

The number of goals he’s been responsible for is simply staggering, so many of his set-pieces when
you break them down are pure genius – and some of the concepts so simple (such as the Vio screen)
that it’s staggering that we haven’t seen widespread adoption of them yet.