Archive for the ‘Tactics’ Category
Pellegrini’s “magic box” at Real Madrid is a new attempt to play very fluidly with incredibly skillful players. As a formation, it is the perfect compromise, allowing the team to play Kaká, Ronaldo, Raúl and Benzema as a foursome in attack, whilst still nominally providing cover at the back. It doesn’t always go according to plan, but when it does it can cut through teams like hot butter. Playing very fluidly is something a lot of Football Manager Live managers attempt to do, without really having the players to pull it off. Fluidity is not solely down to how “beautiful” the football will be; it is about a player’s positioning and movement relative to…
Teams are playing with fewer forwards than they used to, and yet the number of defenders has stayed the same. The “flat back 4” has pretty much achieved hegemony in top class football. Even in the Balkan states, where 3-5-2 used to reign supreme, the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 have become more prevalent, especially at international level. It hasn’t always been so; in 1990 the World Cup was won by West Germany’s 3-5-2, and even England ditched their favoured 4-4-2 to embrace the formation. But given that there are more and more teams using systems with only one recognised centre forward, why hasn’t a system which uses fewer defenders enjoyed a renaissance? Indeed, why…
The winger as an inside forward is becoming more and more popular in modern football. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Rooney to an extent have excelled at starting off in a wide position and then cutting in towards goal – with spectacular consequences. In the past, Football Manager (and very early Football Manager Live beta) users would have plonked these guys at AML or AMR and had a diagonal arrow to the FC position. Well now, with the introduction of roles and duties in the new tactics creator, you can achieve this effect once more. “It’s funny when I see centre-forwards starting off in the middle against their markers and then going away from goal. Strikers…
When Switzerland went to the 1938 World Cup, they did so with a team of amateurs and a very small talent pool. In response to the physicality and technical sophistication of their opponents, coach Karl Rappan used one of his centre halves as a deep-lying defender who could sweep up any loose balls that got behind the full backs. Once the team got the ball, he could step out from the defence and offer his services deep in the midfield. The four-man defence and the libero sweeper were born. In recent years, the sweeper has gone out of fashion. “Flat” back fours have become the norm, and full backs have become more attacking. Systems which could naturally house a…
One of the little changes that may have passed under the radar with the new match engine is the importance of playing people in their natural positions. As we all know, the little green blobs on the position chart show how comfortable a player is in playing in a certain position. From red, meaning he hasn’t got a clue through to bright green, meaning “natural” talent in that area. Tactically these blobs haven’t been too much of a problem. Players who are “accomplished” in a second position can usually play well with no problems whatsoever. Sure, they may not be at 100% efficiency, but on the whole they do pretty well – and it allows any player who could…
As promised in the article on split forwards a few weeks ago, this week we’re going to look at strikers playing up there all on their lonesome. Feed the goat… In order to score, players need service. In two or more striker formations, that isn’t a problem at all. The creative man or the big man provides the balls for the goal scorer to put away. Not every team has a Maradona who can weave through a defence at will and score the necessary goals – even Diego needed a helping… er… hand as well as his magnificent slaloming goal against England in 1986. Solving this problem is the key to getting a good lone-striker formation to work. Most of the following…
If you remember all the way back to August, I wrote an article outlining the “realism” of the 4-6-0. Since then, I’ve come up against a few versions of the formation in the game. So, during a friendly against quite an impressive side in the Fowler gameworld, I decided to try a very simple philosophy out on the opposition: If you’re not playing with forwards, I won’t play with defenders Now, of course I couldn’t play with no defenders. That would be suicide. But it was also clear that if the opposition were going to play in the midfield then having five players at the back (my preferred formation, as seen here on this very site) seemed wasteful. They were…
Defensive Midfielder, two Midfielders and an Attacking Midfielder. The diamond midfield. It won England a World Cup, it brought derision to Sven-Göran-Eriksson and, seemingly, it is the formation of choice of new Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti. As we discussed in last week’s article, translating the word diamond is not an easy task. The problem is that not every conception of the “diamond” fits neatly into the “DM, 2M, AM” category. To start with, there’s the “wide diamond” (DMC, ML, MR, AMC) versus the “narrow diamond” (DMC, MC, MC, AMC). What I am going to say here is that the following setups can also be diamonds. Geometry be damned – this…
