Swede success

Long before Sven Goran Eriksson was even heard of there was another wily
Swede making his mark on Serie A. Both as a player and a Coach Nils Liedholm
left a considerable imprint on the Italian game. To this day his opinion is
still regularly sought on the present state of the two clubs he most deeply
affected - Milan and Roma.

As a player, Liedholm was the kind of straniero clubs nowadays must dream of
signing. Influential and mature, he was both a playmaker and scorer of some
repute. There was already plenty of silverware in his trophy cabinet when he
made the trip to Milan in the summer of 1949. That was only enhanced over 12
memorable seasons with the boys from the San Siro.

With domestic League titles in Sweden and Olympic gold for his country
already behind him, it was clear new challenges were needed for the talented
26-year-old plying his trade with Norrkoping. There was no better place to do
that than with a Milan side desperate to rediscover some success after
decades in the doldrums.

Just as they would years later, the Rossoneri decided to build their success
around a trio of impressive foreign stars. The tactical awareness of Gunnar
Gren, the awesome scoring power of Gunnar Nordahl and the character of
Liedholm formed the impressive Gre-No-Li partnership. It was to be a model
successfully followed by Frank Rijkaard, Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit at
the club decades afterwards.

And the rewards, at least domestically, were not dissimilar. Four League
titles came in the fabulous 1950s for the Milan giants and they came close to
knocking Real Madrid off their European perch in 1958 - only losing out to
that great side in extra time. It was a Golden Age for the club and Liedholm
was a vital part of that.

An organiser of play the whole of Milan’s game revolved around him for more
than a decade. Legend has it was two years before he misplaced his first pass
in front of his home fans - prompting a five minute round of applause such
was the rarity of the event. In ‘Liddas’ the Rossoneri had something
special and a tally of 81 goals in over 350 games is testament to his
quality, especially since he arrived in Italy relatively late in his career.
But the Swede was a class act and had both the fitness and footballing brain
to play at the highest level longer than most.

An accomplished sportsman, he was one of the first players to realise the
importance of more all-round fitness in the game. This was so much the case
that he would carry out additional practice to better prepare him for the
football field. That regime was unusual but certainly seems to have worked.
"At that time footballers only trained a couple of times a week," he said.
"But I used to add two sessions of athletic training including the 100
metres, 3000 metres, javelin, shot put and high jump."

He used his physical stature to develop an impressively long throw-in which
he used to deadly effect. Almost from the halfway line he was able to
catapult the ball towards Nordahl who rarely missed out when a chance came
his way inside the penalty box.

Perhaps it was this dedicated approach to training that allowed Liedholm to
play at the top of the game for so long. In 1958, with his 36th birthday fast
approaching, he played a part in taking his country to the World Cup Final in
Sweden against Brazil only to lose out to the teenage Pele. And his Serie A
career went on until he was close to 40.

There was little doubt that such a methodical man could switch his skills to
coaching and after spells in the backrooms at Milan he was ready to take
charge of clubs of his own. Promotion seasons with Verona and Varese saw him
catch the attention of Fiorentina and then the top job back at his old club
Milan.

Dubbed ‘The Baron’ after marrying a member of the Italian nobility, he was
also lucky enough to be in charge of the Rossoneri when they picked up their
tenth League title in 1979. An even trickier task proved not to be beyond him
when he made his way to Roma. In 1983, playing the zonal system which was
unusual for Serie A at the time, he took the capital club to only their
second Scudetto. A year later, his team lost out to Liverpool on penalties in
the European Cup Final.

That must have been his only regret as both player and Coach, never to clinch
a title at European level. But his impact on the game in Italy and beyond
should not be underestimated. Many of the theories he hatched have become
accepted practice today.

Still a respected pundit as he approaches his 80th birthday, he reckons the
biggest change in the game has been in its tempo. Back in the 1950s there was
not the same frenetic action and even his Roma team of just two decades ago
might find things tough in the helter-skelter world of the year 2001. "The
game has changed, above all in the speed of players around the ball," said
Liedholm. "During a game if you watch the players far away from the ball they
are not running - but close to the ball they run at breakneck speed.

"The only trouble is they do not do much to avoid fouling players," he added.
"It is too easy to stop a player by fouling him. Proper training teaches you
how to win the ball without committing a foul, which is much more difficult.
I learned that as a youngster and that was why I was rarely booked or
suspended."

Liedholm loved Italy so much that he set up his home there and remained even
after his lengthy coaching career ended. Away from the game he enjoyed
success with vineyards now run by his son. Of course, he still catches a
Serie A clash when he can. And his opinions carry a lot of weight as one of
only a handful of foreign Coaches - like his countryman Eriksson or wily
Yugoslav Vujadin Boskov - to have taken the Scudetto in the last 20 years.

That should be good news for Roma fans if their old boss’ predictions can
come true. He rates this Giallorosso vintage as good as the won that he took
to the title nearly 20 years ago. And that really ought to be enough to see
them grab a third Scudetto. After all, if anyone knows what he is talking
about it must be Liedholm - a man who has seen nearly a thousand Serie A
Sundays as player and Coach.

STAR RATING 8/10 A thinking-man’s footballer, the Baron was impressive on
the pitch and on the bench. Ahead of his time in both training and theories
of the game, it is little wonder he is still highly regarded to this day.

Nils Liedholm
Born: Valdemarsvik (Sweden), 8/10/22
Position: Midfielder
Ht/Wt: 1.83m/82kg
Serie A debut: Sampdoria 1-3 Milan, 11/9/49
Italian club: Milan

Playing Honours:
Swedish Championship (1947, 48)
Lo Scudetto (1951, 55, 57, 59)
Olympic Gold (1948)
World Cup Runner-up (1958)

Coaching Honours:
Lo Scudetto (1979, 83)
Coppa Italia (1980, 81, 84)



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