Paolo Maldini: The defender so good, he didn’t even need to make a tackle

“If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”

That is the sentiment of Italy legend Paolo Maldini.

At first glance, it seems like an odd thing to say as one of the greatest defenders in footballing history.

When you think of defending, your mind tends to think of getting stuck into a good, old-fashioned tackle.

But, the one-club man, 47 — who spent his entire career at AC Milan — averaged only 0.56 challenges per game during his career.

It’s staggering to think that Maldini achieved what he did, without ever really needing to lunge in.

It speaks volumes for a man whose positioning and ability to read the game was second to none.

So let’s go back to that line: “If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Bayern Munich and former Liverpool and Real Madrid holding midfielder Xabi Alonso.

He said: “I don’t think tackling is a quality. It is something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game.

“I can’t get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play.

“How can that be a way of seeing the game? I just don’t understand football in those terms.

“Tackling is a [last] resort, and you will need it, but it isn’t a quality to aspire to, a definition.

“It’s hard to change because it’s so rooted in the English football culture, but I don’t understand it.”

Well, Alonso’s way of thinking is definitely the way Maldini looked at the game.

The left-footed Italian went about playing the beautiful game as if it were a chess match — eyeing up his opponents and plotting their moves well before they happened.

His ability to be in the right place, at the right time is something lacking in the modern game.

For instance, the top defenders in the Premier League this season are averaging between four and five tackles per game — hardly massive numbers, but it’s nearly TEN times more than Maldini ever needed.

And look what he achieved in the game…

902 appearances for AC Milan, 126 international caps for Italy, five Champions League trophies, seven Serie A titles, five Super Cups, five Supercoppa Italiana and more personal gongs than you could shake a stick at.

I could go on, but we would be here all day; his record as a footballer is almost unsurpassable — particularly by a fellow defender.

Ultimately, the best way to sum up Maldini could be the world ‘elegant’.

To read the game like he did, to break up the play like he did and start an attack with his ability to pass the ball without ever needing to tackle like he did?

It’s something we may never see on a football pitch again.