Yesterday's Formation / Tactics

[Juno10]

It was really interesting to hear how Carrick responded to the question about our different shape yesterday. He slightly dismissed that it was a whole lot different to normal - especially with the ball.

I think without the ball it was very much a 3-4-3 (or 5-2-2-1) with Greenwood and Rogers being part of a box midfield ahead of Barlaser and Hackney. Villa love to play centrally so it made perfect sense.

But when we did have periods of possession I felt Rav became more of a right back, Engel and Clarke as centre half's. Bangura played high (as our left back does) on the left with
Izzy high on the right. Greenwood came narrow from the left and Rogers was 10. I think some of the tweaks were quite subtle and very clever. Often just moving a players starting position 10-15 yards.

There were some screenshots somewhere that showed the average positions of our players that seem to back Carrick up that it wasn't quite a drastic change.

I thought we looked very well coached!

 

[B_G]

It was very different out of possession. Not just the shape but also the intensity. Usually we press very high up the pitch with our front 4. On Saturday we retreated to our own half and basically defended the final third which is very common in Premier League football. Engel was playing in a back 3. It was very different to our normal mantra.

In possession, Engel and VDB did seem to push very wide but they didn't advance up the pitch. Stayed predominantly in our own half ready to tuck back in if we did lose possession.
I don't think the middle 2 really changed their usual roles.
Obviously Coburn was visibly more isolated as a result of us playing more rigid out of possession.

 

[Nano]

I played football manager again recently, first time for quite a while. I was well into the older versions cm01/02 etc so it was a big change because there is a lot more detail and options. The biggest change in tactics is the number of roles there are. It really makes you think because where you used to have a central midfielder which was a position you now have the below to choose from. The outcome is that formations always used to be symmetrical but now they are not. You have very different players suited to the roles. You might have two midfielders but they aren't like for like replacements. They are suited to very different roles. You can also setup in different formations and have players covering the same roles and jobs in defence and attack are very different as well. The world of football tactics has moved a very long way from fixed positions on a blackboard.

Defensive Midfielder
Deep Lying Playmaker
Ball Winning Midfielder
Anchor Man
Half Back
Regista
Roaming Playmaker
Segundo Volante
Central Midfielder
Box to Box Midfielder
Advanced Playmaker
Mezzala
Carrilero
These can all be a variation of support, defend or attack as well.