Tag Archives for " Midfield "

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

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 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

1 The Triangle Midfield

The two most popular systems of play in the world at the moment are the 4-3-3 and the 4-2-3-1. Both are predicated on creating a connection between a group of three midfielders. Getting these players to understand their roles and work together are the key factors that will contribute to the success or failure of the team.

Our latest book, Triangle Midfield tells you everything you need to know about