The Regista is a deep-lying playmaker,
one of the two creative rolls named by
the theoreticians of Italian football
The other, the trequartista, plays in
the hole behind the strikers but the
Regista is an equally important
position with a rich tactical history
and evolution. The deep-lying playmaker
can be found throughout the history of
football tactics. In the old 2-3-5 a half
back line of three sometimes saw a player
capable of raking passes out to the
advancing wingers deployed as the
centre-half. Charlie Roberts, who won the
league with Manchester United in 1908
and 1911, was known for his ability to
play the ball long into attacking
positions from the middle of the 2-3-5.
Vittorio Pozzo, who managed the Italian
side from 1929-48, admired Roberts'
creativity from a deep position and used
Luisito Monti in a similar way. Monti had
a screening role in Pozzo's 2-3-2-3 as a
Centro Mediano tasked both with marking a
deep-lying centre-forward, but also pivoting
to turn defense into attack with his
long passing. In the 1950's
sides such as Hungary started to deploy
withdrawn forwards like Nándor Hidegkuti
causing havoc to more static man
marking systems. In turn these defensive
arrangements responded by deploying
screening midfielders to track the
forward, robbing the centre half of his
creative role. There were exceptions.
Luis Suarez, the Spain international who
pulled the strings from deep for Hellenio
Herrera's Inter in the sixties,
played just in front of the back four.
Suarez could carry the ball forwards,
but was often content to spread it wide spray it
forwards from a quarterback position in
front of three central defenders.
Nonetheless the fashion in European
football outside of Italy pushed
creativity to the attacking midfield
position ahead of all wingers and behind
the forwards. The evolution of tactics in
2-4-2-4 and 4-4-2 tended to make the
deep-lying playmaker redundant, for a
while at least. Creativity came from
driving box-to-box midfielders or wingers
and overlapping fullbacks or from the 10
dropping off to find holes in front of
the opposition back four. While, as
Jonathan Wilson notes "the Brazilian side
of 1970 used Gerson and as a Regista
alongside the combative Clodaldo
The Selcao's athleticism and fluidity
compensated for the natural over loads that
tend to occur when a central midfield
axis employs a Regista. The
reintroduction of proper Regista's began
when shifts to 3-5-2, or 4-1-3-2, created a
screen of two defensive midfielders
behind who a Regista could sit. Andrea
Pirlo, without doubt the modern games
greatest exponent of the art played
under Carlo Ancelotti at AC milan in a
variety of formations, most notably the
4-3-1-2 and the 4-3-2-1 as a
sort of half back in the second line of
three. Gatuso and Clarence Seedorf,
or Massimo Ambrosini who formed an
narrow midfield that drew its wdith from
overlapping fullbacks, a shielded Pirlo,
giving him time and space to pull the
strings from deep. Having transferred to
Juventus, Pirlo continued to play in a
deep creative role with dynamic
intelligent midfielders such as Arturo
Vidal, Claudio Marchisio and Stefano
Sturaro providing cover. In the voguish
4-1-2-3, which often uses inside forwards in
support of a lone striker, the deep
midfielder can either be a destructive
player shielding the back four,
or a Regista. Xabi Alonso, who like Pirlo,
has adapted to the Regista role, as he
got older, plays in this space for Bayern
Munich. there is perhaps one true
Regista currently in English football,
Michael Carrick. He has the poise and
range of passing of good deep playmakers
and Sir Alex Ferguson's purchase of
Carrick signaled his desire to move to a
4-3-3 with Carrick central, or 4-2-3-1 with
the former Spurs man playing alongside
a ball winning midfielder. Perhaps
his failure to reach the heights he was
probably capable of was due to the
frenzied pace of English football which
denied Carrick the space needed to excel.
Or perhaps the English distrust of pure
creativity of unhurried elegance rather
than hurly-burly scramble and wanting it
more than that, Carrick just played the
game in the wrong country. Intelligence
and tactical perception of the
stock-in-trade of the Regista, not pace
and stamina. There has perhaps never been
such an un-English role in football.