Zona Mista

Zona Mista, often referred to as Gioco all’italiana, is a tactic used in Italian football mainly since the second half of 1970s to mid-1990s. The introduction of this system has been attributed to Luigi Radice and Giovanni Trapattoni. Zona Mista as a tactical theory evolved the Catenaccio system. Its name, which means mixed zones, stands for the idea of applying a zonal system. A player, who leaves the zone that was initially covered, is replaced by a team-mate, thus retaining the team’s intended organisational structure.