The untold story of 4-2-4 inventor

As long as there was many discussions around the web about Antonio Conte’s favorite 3-5-2 system, people can’t forget that Conte’s managing career started to rise up after his conversion to a 4-2-4 formation. Although this is not a new football formation, as  Brazil side of 1970 already ran it, when you come to Serie A it remains a shape linked to Antonio Conte and Torino’s head coach Giampiero Ventura. Both tacticians have achieved success with the 4-2-4 shape. Every time the Derby della Mole was in place, there was a lot of controversy involving both coaches about who has been the father of the 4-2-4 formation. For some critics it was Conte who found inspiration in Ventura's tactics. Former Bari’s netminder Jean-Francois Gillet, who played for both coaches, often brought on memories Conte's obsession with Ventura, the man who Conte replace at Bari, and his tactics.  “My football is similar to his? Perhaps it's the other way around…," Ventura once told. Other experts give credit to Conte as the first one to implement this shape. Whatever the truth is, those tacticians shared a friendship with the man who probably deserves to be the first to introduce this shape on Italian football. This man is the highly unknown Antonio Toma. Toma, a former minor leagues standout footballer nicknamed ‘MaraToma’, is a bright tactician that just never had the opportunity to prove himself at higher level. He resurrect the 4-2-4 formation when he took the job as manager at Pisa back in 2005. Under his tutelage, Pisa quickly went to obtain positive results following a fast-tempo offense built around the movements of the four-man up front. Surprisingly, Toma  found himself out of contract and jobless at the end of that campaign. When Ventura arrived at Pisa after some time, he brought on the same idea and found solid base to travel through the same pattern. The interesting part of the story is that Conte made Toma his assistant coach during his spells at Atalanta and Bari. So, although they didn't mention former Pisa boss, both Ventura and Conte shared their philosophy with the Toma and modeled their 4-2-4 formation on Toma's philosophy.