Cristian Chivu Surprising Parma Tactic

A couple of months ago, this person was managing in the youth league of Italian football. Now, he is fighting to keep this team above the relegation zone in Serie A.

Do you think he will succeed?

To find the answer, we need to dive deeper.

Born in Resita, Romania, Cristian Chivu followed on his father’s footsteps and began his career at the local club, CSM Resita.

Mircea Chivu, Cristian’s father, is a local legend and an idol at the club. The stadium is named after him, to honour all that he did for the club.

Cristian Chivu debuted in 1997 and played 24 games for the club in the 1997-1998 season. As a position, he is well-known for being a left back, but he played in multiple positions, especially as a youngster.

As he put it in a recent interview, the only position he hasn’t played as is the goalkeeper one. But, if any of his managers would have asked him to do it, he would have done it.

This versatility helped him throughout his career, being pivotal later on down the road.

His reputation began to grow at CSM Resita and in 1998, Universitatea Craiova, a big club in Romanian football and a favourite of Chivu’s was interested in signing him. Thus, he moved further down the road to Craiova.

Where he played one season, earning 32 appearances beforing moving to one of the biggest clubs in Europe, Ajax Amsterdam. And before anyone argues against this notion, Ajax won the UEFA Champions League in 1994-1995 and the UEFA Cup in 1995-1996.

At Ajax, Cristian Chivu struggled to fit in at first, having to live in a hotel room in the first months at the club. But, as he said in the interview cited earlier, the move to the Dutch club helped him a lot.

In Romania, the footballing culture was to follow the instructions the coach gave you. At Ajax, Chivu described, the coaches discussed the instructions and the tactical decisions with the players.

Besides being a big change for him, it also helped to develop his tactical awareness and increased his responsibilities on the pitch.

In time, Chivu became captain and led a dressing room made of players like Rafael van der Vart, Wesley Sneijder, Johnny Heitinga and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The club dominated Dutch football at that time and came very close to qualifying to the UEFA Champions League semifinals in the 2002-2003 season.

And thanks to his brilliant performance, Cristian Chivu was on the move again in 2003, as AS Roma decided to transfer him in.

But the same way as Ajax was a footballing culture shock for him, the same was the Italian football philosophy.

As he mentioned, he moved as he wanted a new challenge. However, he did not imagine, at the time, the level of dedication and physicality the training session would require. In time, this helped him to become stronger. And together with the tactical knowledge he earned throughout the matches he played, Cristian Chivu became a world class player.

It was around this time when I became more aware of him as a player and started following his and AS Roma games. And at that time, AS Roma was a team that competed for all the trophies that were out there in Italy and in Europe.

However, all that being said, Cristian Chivu left Roma winning only one trophy, the Coppa Italia in the 2006-2007 season.

Lots of rumours and debates started about his next move in the summer of 2007, with him actually being sold to Real Madrid. Only his signature remained to be given. But, he refused.

As he mentioned in the recent interview, his contract was up at the end of that season. He thought that AS Roma were going to offer him a new contract at the end of the season. But as that did not happen, Chivu went and informed the board that he will leave, but only to Internazionale Milano. The club disregarded his wish and sold him to Real Madrid, thus he refused to sign with the Spanish club.

There are rumours that Barcelona were after his signature as well, but Chivu said that those discussions were never as advanced as the Real Madrid ones.

Eventually, he got what he wanted and signed for Inter Milan. A move that made the Roma fans hate him.

In his first season at Inter Milan, Chivu and the team won the Serie A title.

Chivu was a regular at the club, playing as a left back, in a defence made of Walter Samuel and Lucio, among others.

In the 2009-2010 season, Chivu suffered a horrible head injury and was thought that he would miss the rest of the season. But, after a successful surgery and wearing a headguard, he returned to the pitch just in time for the most important period in the club’s modern history.

In a battle fought by two brilliant managers, the players’ will, and beliefs made the difference. And on 28th of April 2010, the Inter Milan players had the best game of their careers, defending a slender lead against Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona.

Cristian Chivu started the game as a left winger, as Jose Mourinho asked him to mark Dani Alves and as he put it, the Portuguese manager told him that he was confident he would do a good job, since Dani Alves was mostly playing in attack, so Chivu would become a left back anyway.

However, following the sending off of Thiago Motta, Chivu was moved in the midfield, as a defensive midfielder.

The match was fought by both sides, and the tie was eventually won by Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan, sending them to the UEFA Champions League.

And the following couple of weeks brought the club the treble – the Serie A title, the Coppa di Italia and most importantly, the UEFA Champions League trophy.

Inter became the sixth European club to complete a treble, and the first and only Italian club to achieve this feat to date.

Besides club career, Cristian Chivu had an illustrious international career also, playing for Romania. He debuted during the golden era of Romanian football, even being Gheorghe Hagi’s roommate. He scored against England and after the golden generation retired, he led the Romanian national team.

Although no major international trophies were won, Chivu’s and Mutu’s generation bridged the gape between the golden team and the current one, inspiring young players to want more.

After he retired, Chivu took a break from football, but the lure was to powerful, so he came back, going through the coaching badges levels and graduating as a manager.

He started managing youth teams at Inter Milan, from the U14s to the Primavera team. And this spring, he took over Parma, his first senior managerial role.

Before he joined the club, Parma were fighting against relegation and probably they still are. But Parma had to fight more than the relegation from Serie A in its history.

The club was founded in July 1913 as Verdi Foot Ball Club in honour of the centenary of famous opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, who was born in the province of Parma.

In December of the same year, Parma Foot Ball Club was formed from many of the original club's players and began wearing white shirts emblazoned with a black cross.

After the end of World War I, Parma began playing football properly, in the 1919-1920 season. Parma became a founder member of Serie B after finishing as runners-up in the Prima Divisione in the 1928–29 season. And the club would remain in this league for three seasons, before being relegated and changing its name to Associazione Sportiva Parma in 1930.

With the relegation it came the founding of Serie C, the third level of Italian Football. Unfortunately for them, the club spent more than a decade in Serie C, as they got promoted to Serie B in 1943.

The Second World War brought the Italian football competitions to a halt as it intensified, although Parma did make an appearance in the Campionato Alta Italia in 1944.

The club was again relegated to Serie C in the 1948-1949 season, but after five seasons they got promoted back to Serie B.

This was a time when the players were working or were studying, besides playing football for the club. This plus other sports becoming popular in the region proved unhelpful for the football club.

Disaster struck in 1966, when Parma suffered the second successive relegation, ending up in Serie D, the fourth level of Italian football.

In 1968, the club was ordered into liquidation and changed its name to Parma Football Club. Another local club, Associazione Calcio Parmense, took over the license of the 1913 founded club. That brought with it a change of luck in both financial and sporting terms, as the side was crowned Serie D champions and spent three years in Serie C before promotion to Serie B.

But it did not last long. The team was relegated back to Serie C in its second season in the division. A return to Serie B did not come about until the end of the 1970s and the club again lasted only one season in the second division of Italian football.

I mean, at this point, is this the ultimate yo-yo club?

Under the management of the great Cesare Maldini, Parma once again returned to Serie B in 1984. Funny enough, Stefano Pioli scored the only goal of the promotion final, against Sanremo.

And you guessed it, the club spent only one season in Serie B, returning quickly to Serie C.

But this prompted a so-called Arrigo Sacchi to lead the club to another promotion Serie B, in 1986. The side enjoyed success that season and missed out on promotion to Italy's top tier by just 3 points and they even eliminated A.C. Milan in the Coppa Italia, a result that convinced owner Silvio Berlusconi to hire Sacchi as the new manager of the A.C. Milan.

Another rather unknown management figure at that time, Zdenek Zeman, took over Parma. But, was fired after just seven matches and replaced by Giampieri Vitali, who secured two consecutive mid-table finishes.

Finally, in 1990, the curse was broken, the tie of the yo-yo snapped, the ghosts were…oh, sorry, I go carried away. Nevio Scala, the new manager of the club, helped Parma achieve promotion Serie A after a 2-0 win over Reggiana.

Investment from parent company Parmalat helped to improve the team's fortunes and the club made its debut in UEFA competitions in 1991.

I am sorry, Parma fans, I know you know what’s coming and what Parmalat means, but let’s just get through it quickly.

Nevio Scala proved to be a lucky token for the club, leading them to winning Coppa Italia in 1991-1992, against Juventus. The following season, the club won its first international trophy, the Cup Winners’ Cup against Antwerp, 3-1.

The next season, the club won the UEFA Super Cup against AC Milan but lost the Cup Winners' Cup final 1–0 to Arsenal.

Nevio Scala's final success with Parma was in another two-legged final against Juventus, in which Dino Baggio scored twice to give Parma a 2–1 aggregate win, but Juventus had their revenge in the Coppa Italia final.

Replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, Scala departed in 1996 and was a popular manager because of the trophies he won and the attractive playing style the club expressed.

Carlo Ancelotti overhauled the team and guided them to an historic second place in Serie A, in 1997. The team also made its debut in the UEFA Champions League that season.

However, the culmination of everything that was won by them came thanks to Alberto Malesani’s leadership, the team won the UEFA Cup in 1998, against Marseille and the Coppa Italia against Fiorentina, making it a double.

But a bad streak of missed replacements after the club sold their best players led to what can only be described as an abrupt ending.

The club’s sponsor, Parmalat, when through its own ordeal and eventual bankruptcy, which promoted Parma to struggle more and more. Following the financial meltdown of Paramalat, Parma was declared insolvent and was put under special administration for 3 years.

In 2007, Tommaso Ghirardi bought the club out of administration and became the owner and the president of the club.

Manager Claudio Ranieri helped the team avoid relegation to Serie B on the final day of the 2006–07 season following his February appointment.

However, the danger was still lurking, as under a succession of new managers, Parma faced relegation to Serie B after 18 years. Someone stitched the yo-yo back.

The club was promoted the following season, but in 2011, they were again part of the relegation battle. Franco Colomba led the club to escape the drop with a game to spare.

Roberto Donadoni took over the club managerial duties after Franco Colomba left and led the club to European qualification. Or...did he? In 2014, the club qualified for UEFA Europa League but was barred from competing due to licensing issues, prompted by late payment of income tax on salaries. The team faced points deductions also for the following season.

Financial turmoil ensued and the club went through another bankruptcy in March 2015, with total liabilities of €218 million, including €63m in unpaid salaries.

The administrators were forced to put some of the trophies to sell in an auction in a desperate attempt to raise money to cover the debt. These included: three Coppa Italia won, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, two UEFA Cup and the 1999 Supercoppa Italiana.

I am…speechless.

The re-founded club, S.S.D. Parma Calcio 1913, was formed in July 2015, taking its name from the year of foundation of the predecessor club and securing a place in the 2015–16 Serie D season, representing Parma.

In the club's first season, they sold over 9,000 season tickets, more than doubling the Serie D record.

After a series of promotions and relegations, the team settled in Serie B.

The 2020-2021 season brought with it relegation for Parma, as they finished last in the table. And in September 2020, Parma was purchased by American Kyle Krause.

Fabio Pecchia took over the club and got them promoted to Serie A in the 2023-2024 season. However, after poor results this season, Fabio Pecchia was dismissed and Cristian Chivu entered the stage, debuting as senior manager.

It’s hard to pinpoint a single tactical setup preferred by Cristian Chivu and he did not make it easier by changing formations at the beginning of his reign. In his defence, being a new manager it’s quite understandable.

I noticed that in recent matches, he used a 3-5-2 formation and so I focused on recreating this one. Choosing a sweeper keeper on defend duty in goal. Zion Suzuki is not going out of his way to be a sweeper keeper, but it’s always good to use the goalkeeper as a passing option, to avoid the opposition’s pressing game.

The back three are two central defenders, one on defend and one on cover and a wide center back on defend duty. If the roles don’t fit your squad, change them to three central defenders on defend duty for full cover.

The wing backs are two wing backs on support. I did not want them to go up the pitch relentlessly, like they would do on attack duty. I preferred them to be on support duty and go up the pitch in the rhythm of play.

The defensive midfielder is a half back. However, this is more of a personal preference. If you want a more mobile role, you can use a defensive midfielder or a ball winning midfielder on defend. Simon Sohm seems to be a balanced player in terms of attributes, so all 3 roles suit him in my opinion.

For the two central midfielders I opted for a favourite duo – central midfielder on support and box-to-box midfielder. I am not sure if these 2 roles fit Chivu’s playing style idea, but in the game, they provide flexibility in possession, giving multiple passing options around the opposition’s box, especially with the box-to-box midfielder.

Take more risks and get further forward for the central midfielder role.

And the front three are a pressing forward on attack and deep lying forward on support. Here, you have freedom to choose which roles you prefer or think would work best. An advanced forward would do the job, paired with a pressing forward.

The idea is to have a pair that would drive forward and try to score as much as possible, as this is not a team that creates loads of chances.

I chose positive as mentality.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width, shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo and play for set-pieces.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball quickly. Counter-press is not a must, it’s just that the game applies the pressing better with this option ticked on.

And out of possession, a mid block and a standard defensive line. Trigger press more often and get stuck in.

I noticed that Cristian Chivu tries to win the midfield battle as much as possible, which also prompts the counterattack play.

I simulated only one season using this tactic and the team did well, considering the circumstances. However, I think this tactic could work in a more controlled environment, in a save that is played rather than simulated.

Watching Cristian Chivu play and listening to his recent interview I got a glimpse of how he sees and understands football. And for this reason, I hope he is going to do well in his career, as football needs managers like him.