There are two basic clichés when it comes to tactics and football. The first is that tactics are inherently negative. Teams who win and entertain do so because they “play better” or “have better players” or “had more passion and wanted it more”. Teams who win but fail to entertain are often described as “well organised”, as if tactics were primarily about stopping your opponents.

The second is that football has been around for so long that you are not going to see anything new tactically. Every scheme or combination has been tried, there is a sense of déjà vu. You may get tweaks here and there, managers making adjustments in certain situations, but that is it. There is no “big idea”, simply because it has all been done before.

Both assumptions are wrong. Tactics are neither defensive nor attacking. It is just that, in the modern game, most teams, even the attacking ones, prefer to use organisation as a means of gaining defensive solidity. Partly this is because organisation is a byword for regimentation. And if you have skilful, creative players up front, you do not want to shackle them. As Jorge Valdano, the former Real Madrid coach, once told me: “The brains of 11 footballers combined can out-think the brain of the cleverest manager in the world.”

In fact, some of the best and most innovative tactical schemes - think Louis Van Gaal’s Ajax, Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan or Rinus Michels’ Holland - unlocked the attacking potential of players, turning good ones into great ones.

The other assumption is equally misguided. On one level there is no reason to presume that football is no longer capable of the kind of innovative and creative mental leap that we have witnessed in the sport’s history (overlapping full backs, the sweeper, zonal marking) and in other fields (the assembly line, eBay, penicillin). On a far more basic level, if you look closely you will see that there are managers doing new and interesting things.

One of the best examples is Pasquale Marino, the Udinese manager. The Italian club are fifth in Serie A, which is impressive for a mid-table club. But what is more remarkable is the way they play.

Marino employs an attacking 3-4-3 formation: three strikers (rather than wingers), wide men who get forward, a box-to-box midfield player and a deeplying playmaker. It is not unusual to see five or six men well ahead of the ball, moving around, creating space and befuddling opponents.

For bigger clubs, who are used to having the bulk of possession, facing Udinese is a shock to the system. Smaller ones can only hang on for dear life as they see waves of opponents streaming into their final third at every opportunity.

At Udinese, for the first time, Marino has the benefit of useful players. Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Di Natale, the strikers, are Italy players, Cristián Zapata, the Colombian defender, is one of the highest-rated young players around and Gokhan Inler, the Switzerland midfield player, has been a revelation. But throughout his career, Marino has been performing miracles with undermanned clubs, proving that it is the system that is at the heart of his success.

A former second-rate professional, Marino, 45, came up the hard way, on the dusty pitches of Sicilian non-league football. In 2000-01, he won two consecutive promotions with little Paternó, taking them up from semi-professional football into the Italian third division.

From there he moved to Foggia (again winning promotion), Arezzo and Catania (where he was again promoted, this time to Serie A, and then steered the club to safety the next year). Four promotions in six seasons tell their own story, although what is remarkable is the way they were gained.

Last season’s Catania team were perhaps the finest example. With a squad of lower-division lifers, he offered some of the most sparkling football in Europe, proving that so-called lesser players can be as entertaining as superstars. As late as January, Catania were pushing for a spot in Europe, then, after the death of a policeman on February 2, they were forced to play the remainder of their home matches in neutral venues and they slid down the table.

Marino’s football is as intoxicating as it is innovative, although there is a flipside. When you are constantly on the attack, you are bound to leak something at the other end (last year Catania conceded five to Fiorentina and Inter Milan and seven to AS Roma; this year they have shipped five to Napoli). But the fact remains: Marino’s system allows players to overachieve and to do so in an attacking, entertaining way.

It is probably a matter of time before he gets to work with world-class players. And it will not be long before, like all innovators, somebody tries to copy him. If that is the case, for lovers of open, attacking football it can only be a good thing.

Kanouté silences critics

When Juande Ramos’s Seville came within a whisker of an historic treble last season (they won the Uefa Cup and Spanish Cup and were two points off the pace in the league with two matches to go), much of the credit deservedly went to Frédéric Kanouté, who scored 29 goals in all competitions. His feats may have surprised a few in England, who may remember that he failed to score more than 11 league goals in 6K years with West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur.

But Kanouté proved in the first half of this season that 2006-07 was no fluke, with 17 goals in 25 appearances. For those who may wonder, that is why he was voted African Player of the Year, beating Didier Drogba and Michael Essien. And deservedly so.

American dreamer

Marketing experts seem to feel that if football is to establish itself as a leading sport in the United States, it is going to take more than David Beckham. What is needed is a legitimate American-born superstar footballer. At last, there is one on the horizon. And it is not the much-hyped Freddy Adu, who has yet to start a match after his move to Benfica in the summer (although do not be too hard on him, he is still only 18).

Remember the name: Jozy Altidore. The New York Red Bulls striker is generating a buzz among scouts. He is five months younger than Adu and, unlike him, had no trouble establishing himself in Major League Soccer. Plus, he is a friend of Wyclef Jean, the rap musician, and is featured alongside Ronaldinho on the cover of EA Sports’ FIFA 08. Stardom beckons.