Tackle usually refers to sliding tackle. That's what Maldini was referring to. In Italy and Spain, defenders are taught NOT to do it. It's strictly supposed to be a last resort kind of thing. And you can bet Maldini never trained in it. In fact, i don't think anybody ever trained in it. What's the point? It's not something players need to practice
Maldini didn't and i don't think Rio did either. I don't think it's a trainable skill, really. Or a skill at all.
And people here are looking at the tackle quote the wrong way. In pep's system, if a player needs to make a tackle it means something went wrong. Ideally, if his team makes no tackles, that should mean they played well and didn't concede anything. The lack of tackling in this game should worry him, because it means his team played with no hunger, urgency, call it whatever you want. Basically, they either have no balls, or they don't care. Either case if i were the manager of that lot i'd be very worried