The Tridents of Serie A 1992-2002
Which team had the best attacking trio in the days of Football Italia?
Who doesn’t enjoy a threesome? Certainly, Serie A teams indulged during the late 90s and early 2000s.
But in that world of divine ponytails and white feathers – where superstars fought over shirt numbers and took mid-season trips to Rio Carnival – which team had it better?
Of course, in the history of Italian football, attacking trios were nothing new. Milan’s Swedish Gre-No-Li comprising Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm ran riot in the fifties; as did “The Magic Trio” at Juventus with John Charles, Giampietro Boniperti and Omar Sivori.
Napoli’s MAGICA, made up of Diego Maradona, Bruno Giordano and Careca, very nearly took the Neapolitans to a second successive Serie A title in 1988. However, these were exceptions rather than the rule.
1995 saw Champions League winners Ajax Amsterdam win another way. No longer was Arrigo Sacchi’s 4-4-2 seen as the blueprint to success – and the ripple was felt across European football.
Either through tactical ideology, sheer fluke, or just a coach appeasing his Club President by finding a place for a new star signing— these moves to a three-pronged assault resulted in some of the most iconic teams we had in Calcio at that time.
Below are the best six and the seasons where they wreaked havoc.
6. Giuseppe Signori – Alen Boksic – Roberto Rambaudi
(Lazio 1994-95 Coach: Zdenek Zeman)
When Zdenek Zeman went to Rome in the summer of 1994, the Czech coach was reunited with two of the three forwards that he had at provincial Foggia three years before. The expansive attacking approach of that team gave birth to the legend of Zemanlandia.
Ex-Foggia men Giuseppe Signori and Roberto Rambaudi flanked Croatian forward, Alen Boksic — the three of them would help take Lazio to a joint second-place finish.
They also handed out famous thrashings along the way. Scoring eight at home to Fiorentina, seven against Padova and Foggia, five against Napoli, four against Milan and Inter; and beating champions Juventus 3-0 away in Turin.
Only a poor away record throughout the campaign prevented Zeman’s team from reaching the mountaintop.
5. Roberto Baggio – George Weah – Dejan Savicevic
(Milan 1995-96 Coach: Fabio Capello)
There was no doubting the talent of Italy’s most recognisable footballer, but there were immediate questions around Roberto Baggio’s move to Milan in 1995. Clearly not the choice of the pragmatic Fabio Capello, Baggio’s arrival immediately gave the coach a tactical headache on just how to fit “The Divine Ponytail” into his Milan team.
Luckily, George Weah was also brought in that summer. The Liberian forward’s work rate in addition to the dependable midfield tandem of Demetrio Albertini and Marcel Desailly, would prove crucial. Milan could fit both Baggio and Dejan Savicevic into the same starting eleven without compromising much in the way of balance.
Milan were dominant from start to finish. Baggio and Savicevic playing together were a joy to watch that spring, in games against Parma and Fiorentina especially.
It was only the following year, once Capello had left for Real Madrid, when cracks would begin to show.
4. Amoruso – Oliver Bierhoff – Paolo Poggi
(Udinese 1997-98 Coach: Alberto Zaccheroni)
The 3-4-3 formation for which he became synonymous, was discovered by Alberto Zaccheroni almost by accident. With the very real threat of relegation looming in the spring of 1997, Udinese went a man down early in the game at Juventus, with ex-Coventry full-back Regis Genaux having been sent off.
Playing the remainder of the match with just three defenders, Udinese’s German/Brazilian front pairing Oliver Bierhoff and Amoruso exploded. Shocking the league leaders with an improbable 3-0 away victory.
Zaccheroni kept the three-defender system in their next match away at second place Parma. There, he added Paolo Poggi as a third striker and Udinese won 2-0. Udinese never looked back after that.
The following year, this triumvirate took their plucky team to a best-ever third-place finish in 1997-98.
3. Edmundo – Gabriel Batistuta – Luis Oliveira
(Fiorentina 1998-99 Coach: Giovanni Trapattoni)
This was the most feared attack in Serie A going into 1999. Gabriel Batistuta had always been a prolific scorer in Florence, but the arrival of the ill-disciplined Brazilian forward, Edmundo, only helped the Argentine striker.
This unlikely South American pair along with the unselfish Brazilian-born/Belgian international Luis Oliveira, had Fiorentina leading the way going into February. Batistuta was Serie A’s top scorer with eighteen goals and the team from the Renaissance city looked every bit like they could win their first league title in thirty years.
That was until Batistuta got injured against Milan and in that same week, Edmundo— enacting a bizarre clause in his contract— left to go to Rio Carnival. Fiorentina were livid at the Brazilian for leaving in their hour of need, but Edmundo was unmoved.
Fiorentina’s title bid soon faded away. While their achievements were somewhat fleeting, this charismatic and eccentric triple threat get the bronze for what could have been.
2. Fabrizio Ravanelli – Gianluca Vialli – Alessandro Del Piero
(Juventus 1994-95 Coach: Marcelo Lippi)
Letting Roberto Baggio go to their closest rival Milan was a sure indication that Juventus were confident in what they had seen in their Scudetto triumph in 1995.
After landing the title for the first time since 1986, the campaign had been the coronation of Alessandro Del Piero. The emergence of this genuine superstar effectively ended Baggio’s time in Turin.
Del Piero, Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizio Ravanelli aka “The White Feather”, formed an attacking trident that could help the team when they didn’t have possession, as well as cause devastation to opponents when they did.
Making Juventus a formidable force both domestically and in Europe, this fighting triad would go on to win the Champions League the year after by beating holders Ajax.
1. Marco Delvecchio – Gabriel Batistuta – Francesco Totti
(Roma 2000-01 Coach: Fabio Capello)
Having accepted the offer of joining forces with Francesco Totti and the prospect of working under Fabio Capello, Batistuta left Fiorentina for Roma in the summer of 2000.
The Argentine forward was desperate to land a league title. His new team were just as determined, having seen neighbours Lazio win it the previous year.
On deciding who should start alongside Batistuta and Totti, Capello preferred the industrious Marco Delvecchio over the more naturally gifted Vincenzo Montella. Having scored eighteen goals the previous campaign, the ex-Sampdoria striker was not best pleased with being displaced by either Delvecchio or the new arrival and refused to hand over the number nine shirt to Batigol.
However, Montella would contribute as much as he would complain about his new role — rotating with the ageing and increasingly injury-ridden Batistuta — and it all worked like a dream.
As in the case of Capello’s Milan 1995-96, Roma led the way from beginning to end. While Delvecchio started, he was not a reliable goalscorer by any stretch of the imagination, whereas Montella and Totti weighed in with thirteen goals each.
Inevitably, it was Batistuta who would lead the way with twenty league goals in total. His last great season in Italian football.