Tag Archives for " Booked "

1 Holes in the 3-1-4-2 System of Manchester United

By Stevie Grieve

New Manchester United Manager Louis Van Gaal has taken over a struggling side from last season, but despite the criticism that David Moyes endured, Louis Van Gaal's premier league start had delivered 1 point from 2 winnable games. This was followed up by a 4-0 humiliation from MK Dons. Despite fielding largely a reserve side, it did contain experienced first team and internationalists in Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa, Jonny Evans and David De Gea.
In the 3-1-4-2 attacking system, there are space to exploit in transition, or when the midfield press high. When the ball is played wide into the full backs, this may entice the already high positioned wing-backs to press high and

0 How Bayern Uses the Overload Tactic to Success

By Stevie Grieve

Bayern Munich opened the new Bundesliga season as Champions but without a fully fit squad and missing several key central midfielders, including Toni Kroos who was sold to Real Madrid. In central midfield, they had unknown teenager Gianluca Gaudino and David Alaba, not an ideal pairing on paper if you don’t realise that David Alaba is one of the best footballers in the world in several positions.

In attack, they had a potent from 3 in Robben, Mueller and new signing Robert Lewandowski, players who will always create and score chances.

The game plan for Bayern Munich was to nullify the threat of Kevin de Bruyne and Ricardo Rodriguez down the left side by limiting their space in transition, while pinning them back while Bayern were in possession by dominating the zone with a flood of players and a constant attacking presence.

Bayern set up – Flood the right side and look for 4v3 on the side

As we can see, Bayern would have 4 players wide on the right side, which enables them to

2 How to Exploit the High Pressure Defense

By Stevie Grieve

Valencia entice pressure to exploit the spaces behind the press.

Valencia came into the Emirates Cup with a new coaching staff, hired from Rio Ave in Portugal. New manager Nuno Espirito Santo and his staff already had the preparation done for this game as his last game in charge of Rio Ave was a Portuguese Cup Final 1-0 defeat to Benfica, where Rio Ave had some good opportunities to score but it wasn’t be a historic day for them.

Going into this game, they knew the spaces they would be able to find if they enticed Benfica to press like they usually do, so set out to pass into areas where Benfica would press, then find a way out to find players in the attacking midfield line between the Benfica defence and midfield line.

They looked for these spaces from the opening minutes, unfortunately losing a daft goal from a pass against a team mate, but from the 2nd half, with the injection of pace from Rodrigo on the left, and Andre Gomes positioning and speed of distribution in central midfield, they looked much more threatening, especially when the Benfica central midfielders were enticed to press in pairs.

Valencia Game Plan

Provoke high pressing from Benfica – Central pressure – release WM between lines

When the ball is passed into a central midfielder, they will hold until

3 The Tactics That Made Mourinho Great

By Stevie Grieve

Jose Mourinho’s Porto won the UEFA Cup in 2003 then the UEFA Champions League in 2004. They did this on the basis of having a very strong defence, very organised in midfield with fast attacking transitions.

When I organised possession, they would play direct and often lose possession but look to recover the second ball while the opponent were unorganised and exploit space that they leave to press.

This week, I will look at the counter attacking phase and how Deco was the main attacking outlet in short pass counter attacks with plenty of support running at pace ahead of the ball, knowing Deco was good enough to find most passes in even the tightest of areas.

Deco initiates the counter attack

Here, Costinha wins the ball and passes to Maniche, who splits the midfield with a 1st time pass to Deco who is

1 Mourinho’s tactics from Porto 2004

By Stevie Grieve

Since I was young, I have always had an interest in tactics, specifically successful coaches, or coaches who have seemingly come from nowhere. When Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto won the UEFA Cup in 2003 against Celtic, I enjoyed the direct style of play much more than I enjoyed watching Celtic’s direct style of play, mainly because it had some unpredictability, fluidity of movement and the talents of Deco as a number 10 in a midfield diamond.

Costinha’s role was an interesting one; a common thing in all of Mourinho’s teams has been the utilisation of a defensive midfielder who sticks to his position and protects the defence – Costinha, Claude Makelele, Esteban Cambiasso, Thiago Motta, Xabi Alonso, Nemanja Matic – but for me it was interesting because it was a ‘new’ position as I had grown up in Scotland with a 4-4-2 and no set defensive or attacking midfielder, and certainly not within a diamond midfield which is common in Switzerland and Italy.

Mourinho’s Porto were a strong defensive team with pace and efficiency in attack, with a good supporting cast in midfield in the form of Thiago, Nuno Maniche and super-sub Dmitri Alenichev.

Porto’s defensive solidity - Establish a block width, depth and compensation system

Wide area turnover; Porto drop off and form a flat back 4

As the ball is lost on the side instantly the back 4 drop off and get

0 Tactical Analysis – Real Madrid Defending v Barcelona

By Stevie Grieve

In the Copa Del Rey final, Real Madrid went into the game against Barcelona confident of a win, even without Cristiano Ronaldo who mass missing due to injury, but with Bale and Benzema both capable of defending from the front and causing problems on the counter attack, Ancelotti set his team up to defend against Barcelona’s main attacking areas, and exploit Madrid’s pace on the counter attack.

Madrid counter-pressing in the opening minutes

Here, we can see that Madrid, having just lost possession, are reluctant to simply drop deep and defend, instead they

1 How Germany Broke Through Algeria’s Defence

By Stevie Grieve

In the last analysis I made which was on Algeria’s solid defensive system, I looked at how they made Germany predictable, and how they almost defended in a 6-3-1 formation, playing on the counter attack behind Germany’s high line.

In this, I will look at the slight tactical alteration Jogi Loew made in regards to the runs that Germany looked for, and how it won them the game in Extra Time.

Highlighted areas and runs to exploit the spaces

When Germany had the ball in deep or wide positions, there were 2 main areas that were available on both sides (due to the symmetrical nature of the Algeria defensive block shape) which were;

0 Modric and Rakitic’s Midfield Defensive Imbalance

By Stevie Grieve

In the opening match of the FIFA World Cup, Croatia played against hosts Brazil, and were tipped to struggle against one of the favourites for the tournament. Croatia can always feel confident against any team boasting a midfield of new Barcelona signing Ivan Rakitic, Real Madrid playmaker Luka Modric, and Inter Milan attacking midfielder Mateo Kovacic, they have a slight defensive imbalance as despite all 3 being able to play as a playmaker or a number 10, none of the 3 are natural holding or defensive midfielders, and in this game it showed with the distances and angles of defensive support and lack of speed to reshape in defensive transition, particularly from Modric and Rakitic.

Brazil’s opening goal – Rakitic and Modric are too far apart as the ball breaks loose

Brazil and Croatia are battling for a loose ball in midfield, Croatia should win it but don’t which leaves the midfield open as Rakitic shifts wider to intercept/press Alves. In doing so, this leaves

0 How Real Madrid Pressed and Beat Atletico

By Stevie Grieve - Real Madrid Pressing v Atletico Madrid

As the ball is passed back, a common pressing trigger in modern football allows for pressure on the ball, and squeezing the defensive lines higher up the field. In this example, Real Madrid’s midfield and defense can

1 Suarez’ Movement On the Counter-Attack

By Stevie Grieve

Liverpool in the 2013/2014 season were a joy to watch all season, and the brightest player in the team was Luis Suarez, who won the Players’ and Football Writers Player of the Year awards. Other than the goals he scored, his work rate to press, his desire to chase down loose balls and his unpredictability in attack, he brought an intelligence of movement which helped Liverpool on constructing attacks, building counter attacks and forcing the opposition to make decisions.

Leading the counter attack

As Sterling drives into space, Suarez has an opponent who wants to drop deep, as Norwich want to tuck in and defend from the centre. Sterling needs to

0 Real Madrid Counter Attacks v Bayern Munich

By Stevie Grieve

When Real Madrid played at home v Bayern Munich, many pundits (including myself) felt that Bayern would arise from their recent slump in form since winning the league and turn it around against Real Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti however, has experience of multiple Champions League semi-finals and knows how to navigate his team to win against a difficult opponent. He knew that Bayern would come to dominate possession, so he wanted to do two things – leave minimal space between all of the lines across the field to stop Bayern from penetrating and getting into dangerous positions, then win possession and use the blistering pace of Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Di Maria and Coentrao to hit Bayern Munich on the counter attack, with Modric and Alonso staying to screen in transition.

Benzema Goal – Ronaldo finds Coentrao behind the defensive line

Fabio Coentrao is an exceptionally fast full back, and outside of being a good 1v1 defender, he is also

2 Effective Counter Attacking

By Stevie Grieve

When Real Madrid played at home v Bayern Munich, many pundits (including myself) felt that Bayern would arise from their recent slump in form since winning the league and turn it around against Real Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti however, has experience of multiple Champions League semi-finals and knows how to navigate his team to win against a difficult opponent. He knew that Bayern would come to dominate possession, so he wanted to do two things – leave minimal space between all of the lines across the field to stop Bayern from penetrating and getting into dangerous positions, then win possession and use the blistering pace of Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Di Maria and Coentrao to hit Bayern Munich on the counter attack, with Modric and Alonso staying to screen in transition.

Benzema Goal – Ronaldo finds Coentrao behind the defensive line

Fabio Coentrao is an exceptionally fast full back, and outside of being a good 1v1 defender, he is also

1 How Atletico Successfully Attacked Barcelona

By Stevie Grieve

In last weeks article, I looked at the recent Champions League match between Atletico de Madrid and Barcelona, which Atletico won 1-0. I look at their defensive set up and how they made it difficult for Barcelona to score, and in this weeks article I will look at one specific area where they targeted to create chances based on Atletico’s direct style of play, a weakness in the Barcelona back 4, and how they put one of the strengths of Atletico’s play against one of the weaknesses of the back four.

Raul Garcia v Jordi Alba in an ariel battle

Quite often we see a big target man playing against a big center back (Andy Carroll v Martin Skrtel or Per Mertesacker) and its 50-50 of who will win. A better idea is to put

0 Tactical Analysis – Atletico Defending v Barcelona

By Stevie Grieve

In the recent Champions League Quarter Final clash, Barcelona drew 1-1 at home to Atletico de Madrid, and went into the 2nd game at the Vicente Calderon needing to score to have a chance at qualification for the Semi-Final.

Atletico have caused problems for every team they have faced in the last 18 months, and in particular Barcelona, who have had three 0-0 draws with Atletico previous to this game, and this would be another scoreless game for Barcelona, who lost 1-0. Barcelona have struggled to score for various reasons, so I will look at some key features of Atletico’s defensive play.

Atletico Narrow Low Block

As Barcelona like to attack through the centre, via Iniesta and Messi predominantly on the inside left and right channels and looking for

1 Spurs flat Midfield In Transition

By Stevie Grieve

Since Andre Villas-Boas was (wrongly in my opinion) sacked, Tim Sherwood has made a case for staying on as Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur, by bringing back an old-school type of 4-4-2 formation, introducing Emmanuel Adebayor (mainly to get the fans onside as AVB didn't use him) and when asked about the turnaround in fortunes of the team during his initial few games in charge, his response was very much a case of “I just put an arm around the players and make them feel good about themselves” – something that the English media love, and something which wears off on the players after the coach has been found to be struggling tactically when it matters.

One part of Sherwood’s 4-4-2 is that there seems to be an insistence of a ‘see-saw’ midfield, with the deepest central midfielder covering the middle line of the field. This is fine, as the other central midfielder doesn't drift any more than 12m away from the covering midfielder, as this can leave the midfield open to penetration, especially in transition – even more so against a team with 3 central midfielders.

In the recent game against Benfica in London, Spurs lost 1-3, mainly due to Benfica being the better team individually, but tactically also. Benfica regularly won the ball in the final 3rd, and could counter attack through the centre of midfield as Spurs central midfielders were too far apart to close down the space, and definitely too far away to press and delay the counter attack.

Spurs attacking build up on the left side

Eriksen – a natural number 10 – receives on the left side, from Naughton, the left back. As he receives, there is a

1 Porto’s Midfield Protection Tactics

By Stevie Grieve

One of the main benefits of playing with a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 is that you can have a high level of flexibility using the 5 players in the midfield. We regularly see teams who like to press playing almost a man-man marking system, particularly in central midfield, where most attacks are constructed.

Another advantage is that defences are best protected via defensive triangulation between defence and midfield when close to goal, which covers most angles and forced 1v1 dribbles to make penetration opportunities.

Porto Midfield man-marking system

Here, Porto play 1v1 all over the field, meaning that 1 player is free from each team, so when Napoli are in possession, it is

4 Bayern Munich’s Defensive Aspects

By Stevie Grieve.

Bayern Munich are right now arguably the best team in Europe, and although they regularly enjoy over 60% possession in matches, they need to ensure that they don’t leave the back door open and conceded goals in the minimal amount of attacks that the opposition will have. In a recent Champions League match v Arsenal, Arsenal have a few noteworthy attacks, but many were cut off at source or stopped by very clever positional play and quick pressing once everyone was in position to do so.

Bayern Munich offside trap trigger

Arsenal are attacking down the left side, and Mesut Ozil makes the centre-wide run behind the full back. Bayern Munich have a very straight back 3, playing Sanogo offside. Bayern have a trigger

0 Bayern Munich’s Attacking Movement

Bayern Munich’s attacking movement to lose markers from crossing position - By Stevie Grieve.

Arsenal played Bayern Munich for a long period with 10v11, and defended fairly well against possibly the most fluid attacking team in Europe. Pep Guardiola teams play high possession football with total freedom of movement within specific areas of the field for each player.

Each player has 3 or 4 team mates that they make rotations in tandem with depending on ball position and team mate position, similar to Barcelona under Guardiola, but Bayern Munich have the ability to score goals from crosses, a weapon Barcelona didn’t have, which makes if more difficult to defend against this Bayern team as they can go over a defence, as well as through.

Muller Goal – Intelligent movement to cross over a low block

Here, Kroos has Muller and Robben moving between the lines looking for a way through the defence, either by

1 Chelsea’s Midfield Rotations

By Stevie Grieve. The complete article can be found in the February issue of the WORLD CLASS COACHING Magazine in the Member Drills Database.

Jose Mourinho has had unparalleled success since 2004, he has won every possible trophy domestically in Portugal, England, Italy and Spain, while winning the Champions League twice in this period. His teams are always defensively strong, have a very organised system to deal with defensive transitions and are always incredibly dangerous on the counter-attack.

One aspect of Jose Mourinho’s teams that don’t get the praise they deserve, is the fluid attacking play that he gets from his teams, and this Chelsea team have some great players which allow for a fluid and attractive style of play, but the Mourinho defensive transition is always an element to look for, which explains why Juan Mata is being left out of the team in favour of Willian.

Chelsea Movements – Lopsided 4-2-3-1 – higher on the side that Hazard plays in

Blue; Back 4. Black; Mid 2. Yellow; Mid 3. Red; Striker

Left side (3 + 11 controls the movements); When Ashley Cole plays at 3, he will overlap and give Hazard more

0 Tactical Analysis: Borussia Dortmund’s Counter Attacking – Part Four

By Stevie Grieve, author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1 and Attacking in the 4-2-3-1.  This is the final part of this article.  Part One can be seen here and Part Two here and Part Three here.

Dortmund Counter-Press Goal v Arsenal

Ramsey wins possession from a loose pass by Reus, but this is where Ramsey finds himself in danger, as Lewandowski has already transitioned to defense, and is pressing Arteta, blocking a forward pass and forcing the ball into Ramsey if he wants to play 1st time. Kuba has also transitioned and is in line with

1 Tactical Analysis: Borussia Dortmund’s Counter Attacking – Part Three

By Stevie Grieve, author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1 and Attacking in the 4-2-3-1.  Part One can be seen here and Part Two here.  Part Four will be posted next week.

Dortmund Counter-Attack and score from the Low-Block Defensive System

Dortmund have 2 clear lines of 4 with Mkhitaryan supporting the pressure. The pass is forced into the 4v1 scenario on the edge of the box (it was 1v1 when the ball was passed), and now Dortmund are

0 Tactical Analysis: Borussia Dortmund’s Counter Attacking – Part Two

By Stevie Grieve, author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1 and Attacking in the 4-2-3-1.  Part One can be seen here.  Part Three will be posted next week.

Dortmund Scoring Chance

Dortmund have just regained possession, and try to attack quickly. Sahin teases a pass into Bender and Reus, tempting pressure from

2 Tactical Analysis: Borussia Dortmund’s Counter Attacking - Part One

By Stevie Grieve, author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1 and Attacking in the 4-2-3-1.

One of Borussia Dortmund’s main strengths comes from the speed of which they attack, and the fluidity of the movement of the players in the front 4, a choice of either Blaszczkovski or Aubameyang, with Mkhitaryan, Reus and Lewandowski. All of these players have explosive pace, especially Aubameyang.

They have an interesting mix of attackers; Lewandowski brings old fashioned target man ability while having the combination play of a midfielder. Mkhitaryan brings balance to the attack as he fills in and opens up space well while combining with the midfield and providing a consistently good final ball, while Reus brings flair and penetration with runs from deep. Aubameyang offers penetration behind the defensive line as he likes to play high (similar to Walcott at Arsenal), while Kuba is the most defensive minded of the group, and is a vital part of the team balance – he will play deeper as Reus moves forward to play ahead of Lewandowski.

Borussia Dortmund have also perfected the art of ‘Counter-Pressing’ where the team press the ball after losing it, to win it back within 6 seconds, to ‘counter counter-attack’ and the speed of transition is a major way that they score goals.

Dortmund Mid-Block Positioning – Ball with full back or wide positioned center back.

Dortmund like to force play to one side, then ‘trap the opponent into passing into a specific opponent either on the

0 The Formation of the Future - Part Three

By Stevie Grieve author of, Attacking in the 4-2-3-1  (Read Part One here and Part Two here)

We have also seen Real Madrid over the last 12 months being able to stop Barcelona in La Liga, and win in the Nou Camp, and Bayern Munich destroy Barcelona 7-0 over 2 legs in the Champions League semi-final, that a totally possession based game can be beaten if you set ‘traps’ for the possession team, and win the ball when they enter specific areas of the field. Once the ball is won, the counter attacking team can then exploit the fact that they defend deeper and have more space to play in on the counter attack behind the defense and between the lines to build the attack quickly.

The trap is set by, for example, showing a certain space and leaving it open for an opponent to move into, and when the pass or dribble is made into that zone, the defense quickly ‘flood’ the zone with players, forcing a turnover of possession via an overload. From the trap, 3 or 4 player will know where and when to run, where the ball will be played and attack quickly to the opposition goal.

If we look at Borussia Dortmund, they have bought wisely in the past 2-3 years to ensure they can perform this style effectively – they have a solid back 4 in Piszczek, Hummels, Subotic and Schemmel, with 2 very effective