Originally Posted by
Nineteenx
He definitely does have a system, it's not a system as people understand systems, where teams have a certain way they play and players that if you stop one or two of, you can stop them playing, it became even more fluid when Hendo was at No6 at the midfield 3 were rotating position and assuming each others position a lot throughout each game. The full backs don't always both bomb on. The system is tweaked for certain sides. One of THE most exciting thing about this team is that we can be brilliant in different ways albeit with familiar patterns (patterns which the players have often mentioned having worked at on the training pitch)
One of the issues we had in the clear system with Fabinho and his high pressing is the midfield 3 didn't rotate and he played very centrally leaving a hole and teams looked to exploit that hole with players making outside in diagonal runs to be found in it, with the two wide players simultaneously springing to quickly give them a 3 or 4 v 2 or 3 running at our defence.
They also exploited our right hand side very well because he isn't a true DM No6 and doesn't operate right across the width of the pitch as Hendo does and teams had learned to do both those things very well until Hendo came back in and were able to instantly do it to us again causing us real problems in games in which Hendo was subbed early this season, to the extent Jurgen had to make more subs specifically to stop it. So that is an example of our system as it was and players operating in set rigid areas that opposition sides could set up to exploit, through countering from defending or from pressing high trying to get a win back and counter from that, which unfortunately was very evident on Fabinho's return v Southampton.
There are certain set things the players have to do, but Jurgen gives them a lot of responsibility for using things they have learned in games and worked on in training and working out how to win games in different ways using them from within the formation and system, that's why watching them is so brilliant, sometimes, if you pay attention to post match interviews, it's very apparent when we've been so much better second half that the players haven't found the solution by themselves and Jurgen has had to remind them of one or two patterns of play they had worked on and developed for such opposition and hadn't tried.
Maybe you don't recognise it as a system because it's very fluid and there are tactical tweaks to it for nearly every game and we can play differently and win games in different ways in every game, but there absolutely is a system. A good example of a tweak and both full backs pushing very high constantly in that game and the reason for that tweak I could use is the second game against Leicester. Leicester play with one up top, Vardy, given we leave our CB's 2v2 at the back in a lot of games, v Leicester we were very comfortable leaving Virgil and Gomez 2v1 against Vardy at the back and pushing up very high on them to dominate the ball in their half, stop them playing their passing game and press and counter press to quickly win back the ball any time we lost possession.
Our pressing isn't just a case of everyone trying to close down very quickly, our players do, but it's far more sophisticated than that and requires far greater reading of the game and awareness and understanding of one another to do, which is why I say all 11 of our players are always 'in play' and we're always defending while attacking and attacking while defending. Our players placement, how and where they press and positions they fluidly take off one another in doing so is expert, it isn't an easy thing to do, that's why other teams suck at it when they think they can just stick out a 433 and have their front players try and chase every player down.
So, a player will move to press a player, they will already be in a very good position to press that player because our players are always defending when attacking, players not involved in the attack will be taking excellent positions to pick up opposition players who could be open to support or launch a counter attack to counter press them and win the ball back quickly, with each of our players not involved in the attack doing this and taking positions off each other and positions between two opposition players so if the opposition get the ball back and their lad beats the first presser, our next lad is straight there and while pressing he is blocking the line for a pass to the player he's moved away from.
Our players not involved in the attack but closest to it will often take a counter press position I call perfection, as their position is so good it enables them to both quickly counter press and win the ball back if our attack breaks down or become actively involved in the attack, Hendo's position v Wolves to assist Bobby's winner is an excellent example of this
I could write over 1,000 pages on all the intricacies of our system, it really is so beautifully elaborate and brilliant to watch, so I'll stop there as I'll be here all night, that's just a tiny sample
Bookmarks