WORLD CLASS COACHING
Winning With Inverted Fullbacks - Attacking
By Luca Bertolini
Table of Contents
PART FOUR
DRILLS AND EXERCISES
1 v 1 wide duels
Having the numerical advantage and high density of players in the center area of the middle third, there should be more space out wide, as the opposition wingers must run inside the field to try to equalize the number of players.
The opposition defending winger must decide if he has to run inside the field to overcome the numerical disadvantage, or to support the fullback who is defending against the attacking winger.
And this defensive need creates 1 v 1 duels between the wingers and the opposition’s fullbacks.
Building up the attacking move on one side, and then quickly switching the side of play toward the other, the wingers should be free to play a 1 v 1 duel with positional advantage.
Coming back again with our minds to the seasons of Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, he used the traditional wingers like Ribery, Robben as inverted players; all them had good seasons from scoring goals point of view with him.
Robben was used, as always, to dribble toward the center from the right side with his left foot and to finish.
Ribery often dribbled to exploit the deep spaces and send cross passes for the center forwards.
As Manchester City manager, Guardiola seems to let many player free to exploit the wide spaces, taking advantage of the 1 v 1 duel, during these seasons.
This is the most interesting and main concrete realization of "Liquid Football" and of the "Inverted Fullbacks,” as we were talking about the beginning of this book.
These free wide players can be defenders...
...Mendy is playing on the left...
...Walker on the right.
These players can be defenders and midfielders together like in this move with Mendy and De Bruyne,
or forwards like Leroy Sanè.
How to coach it
Exercise 5: From 3 v 2 to 5 v 4 or 4 v 3
A 3 v 2 duel is played inside a rectangular square in the middle third at the beginning.
One center midfielder and two inverted fullbacks play against two defense midfielders.
Three forwards (two wingers and one striker) are placed in the final third against four defenders and the goalkeeper.
When all the players of the possession team have touched the ball and the possession is made safe, one of the wide winger can receive the ball.
Two of the three midfielders can run up to support the attacking move and to create a 5 v 4 + goalkeeper duel in the final third while the winger in possession is dribbling toward the goal.
The third player must keep the formation balanced.
The winger in possession must win a 1 v 1 duel against the nearest defender and the pass toward the center.
All the attacking players must have touched the ball and the move must be finished on the other side by the opposite winger.
If the defenders win the possession, they must counter attack 4 v 3 while the fullbacks are running inside the field.
The move must be finished dribbling through the rectangle where the exercise started and over the end line.
Variation:
• One inverted fullback can run wide to create a 2 v 1 duel on the flank
• 2 v 2 duel must be maintained in the center rectangle to be balanced
• The moves must be finished as soon as possible without a fix number of touches
• Counter attack with the same number of players (3 v 3) to stay balanced after the recovery of the ball
Eye on:
• Speed of play to win the 3 v 2 duel
• Skills to win the 1 v 1 wide duel
• Finish at speed
• Timing of inside runs without the ball
