Grieve Archives - Page 2 of 2 - WORLD CLASS COACHING Training Center

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

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 How Bayern Munich Make Space to Attack a Cross

By Stevie Grieve

In the recent Champions League match between Bayern Munich and Manchester United, Bayern needed to draw 0-0, win 1-0 or 2-1 to go through, while Manchester United needed an away goal at least keep themselves in the tie, and they got the away goal early into the 2nd half via a fantastic strike from Patrice Evra from 30 yards. There were scenes of jubilation as all United players, subs and even coaches were almost celebrating victory, but the joy was shortlived as Evra was at fault for 2 of Bayerns 3 goals within the next 15 minutes. I will look at the 1st goal and in particular how he lost Mandzukic to allow him to make it 1-1 within 3 minutes of the Evra goal.

Bayern forwards movement to choose marker and attack the front side

As the ball is passed wide, Muller and Mandzukic crossover and change who their markers will be, Mandzukic v Evra at the far side is a

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

2 Liverpool’s Diamond Midfield

By Stevie Grieve

Liverpool under Brendan Rodgers have shown tactical flexibility all season, changing from 4-2-3-1 at the start of the season, to 3-1-4-2, to a 4-3-3 before moving to a 4-1-2-1-2 recently, giving them a tactical edge over the opposition as he can change Liverpool’s structure to allow them to gain control of the match through a variety of ways.

Liverpool Diamond Midfield v Manchester United's 4-4-1-1

Liverpool marking in midfield while ball is on the side

Here, Gerrard has nobody to mark so he fills in the space between the defence and midfield, as Johnson blocks the forward pass, as Skrtel marks

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

0 The Formation of the Future - Part Two

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

Recently, Chile played against Spain, and deployed a 3-4-1-2 formation, with Arturo Vidal as the number 10, which performed 2 duties.

He was the outlet for central penetration as he is capable of creating and scoring goals
He has a great engine and works hard defensively, show in his performances for Juventus

Vidal’s role was to stop Spain from gaining easy possession in the build-up and consolidation phases of play, giving the defence time to reset into shape.

As Spain played with their usual tiki-taka game, and with a mixture of a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations (both with a false 9), Chile’s 3 central defenders could afford to make sure that one can go out to mark the false 9, as there were no players to mark centrally, only wide. The Chile wing backs were asked to mark the attacking full backs of Spain if they came forward, but often they came back to help the defence and mark the wingers, allowing the near side centre forward to play against the full back and stop him from being an outball, or commonly, not moving forward ahead of the ball as Chile would be left

0 The Formation of the Future - Part One

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

Coaches nowadays are always looking to find a way to take advantage of the spaces left by each formation that is commonly used in football, whether it is 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 3-5-2 or 4-5-1. I feel that the way the game is going, the next major ‘trend’ in football may well be the utilisation of a flexible 4-6 man midfield/attack, in the form of a 3-3-3-1, 3-3-1-3 or a 3-2-4-1 or 3-4-2-1.

Most teams play with a lone striker and the space made around the centre backs made by forcing full backs to defend from wider positions means that they either allow more space for flexibility centrally, specifically around zone 14 (the zone UEFA studies suggested most goals are scored from), or they defend narrower, allowing the attack to pass the ball wide and then draw out full backs and wide midfielders, and try to exploit the space in the spaces they have just left to press the ball.

If we analyse Barcelona under Pep Guardiola, when Busquets drops deep, Alves and Abidal pushed into midfield, creating a flat 3-4-3 with Xavi and Iniesta in midfield, Pedro and Villa wide with Messi in the fairly new ‘False 9’ position between midfield and attack – playing as a center forward in a more withdrawn role to play between the lines and either bring out a center back, or pull deeper a central midfielder to pick him up.

If neither happens, he finds himself able to receive and turn with Pedro and Villa making diagonal inside runs from

2 Attacking in the 4-2-3-1 Blog

This is part of the first chapter of our new book, Attacking in the 4-2-3-1, by Stevie Grieve

When we are trying to make training sessions for the 4-2-3-1, we must be mindful of which areas we can take more risks in to try and score a goal.

Build Up Phase
When close to your own goal, you should try to build safe possession and ensure that the ball can be brought forward into the Consolidation phase. Players should look to keep the ball moving across longer distances across the defensive line and if possible, into the

0 How Bayern Exposed Barcelona's Fullbacks to Score Three Goals

By Stevie Grieve, Author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1, Modern Soccer Tactics and Winning Soccer Tactics. Check out his new book, Coaching the 4-2-3-1 Advanced Tactics here.

Barcelona v Bayern Munich (0-3) Champions League Semi-Final 2nd Leg, April 2013

Bayern Target Barcelona’s Full Backs to Create Goal Scoring Chances

Robben Goal – Alaba’s long pass opens up the space on the far side

Alaba has possession and can see that Alba is too narrow (out of picture) and Robben will be able to receive on the far side. He drills the

1 Penetrating With Killer Passes

By Stevie Grieve, Author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1, Coaching the 4-2-3-1 ADVANCED Tactics, Modern Soccer Tactics and Winning Soccer Tactics.

Barcelona in the 2012/2013 season have been almost unplayable. Last season, they became slightly predictable, they suffered from no width or balance, especially on the left side, which Jordi Alba has fixed this season, and suffered from being too focused on playing centrally, and retaining possession when penetration opportunities have become available. This season, Alba has contributed to the width and balance issue on the left side, but more noticeable has been the massive amount of ‘killer passes’ being played from all over the field. In this game, Alexis, Messi and Villa all scored from a killer pass from different areas of the field.

Alexis’ goal – Iniesta plays a through ball 40 yards from goal between the center backs

Iniesta dribbles forward with Alba in support on the left to make a 2v1. As Iniesta cuts inside, Alexis knows that a space between

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