Attacking Bielsa / Sampaoli inspired fast direct pressing tactic

Well before I start to discuss my tactic I'm using I want to just say how much I love the way Bielsa and now Sampaoli's Chile teams play.

I've tried to replicate the high tempo, high pressing, quick transitional play from defence to attack. What I've produced is a tactic that so far I've enjoyed watching more than any other I've produced. Believe me I've produced many.

I use two variants on formation depending on who I'm playing and the way they line up formation wise but my team instructions remain the same for both.

Against a team playing two out and out strikers I will often play three centre backs. I always try follow the Bielsa strategy of having one extra defender at the back, a spare man if you will.

My team instructions are as follows:

Hassle opponents, much higher defensive line, work ball into box, higher tempo, roam from positions, more direct passing, play out of defence, play wider, stay on feet.

I play attacking and fluid, I went fluid because I need my players involved in all aspects of the play, defend, attack and the transition.

Here is how I lineup when I play three centre backs:

Sweeper keeper support

Left cwb attack, close down more

Left centre defender defend

Centre defender cover

Right centre defender defend

right cwb attack, close down more

Left cm ball winning mid support

Right cm attack, get further forward, close down more

Left inside forward attack, get further forward

Right inside forward attack, get further forward

Striker, false nine

Against a solo striker I move a centre back in a Dmc position and use him as a halfback.

I love how my team win the ball high up the pitch and force the opposition in giving the ball away.

But as good and fun to use as this tactic is I'm still having one or two niggling issues that are annoying me and was hoping one of you could possibly help me with? My wingbacks get forward nicely but they constantly seem to delay crossing the ball, taking one too many touches thus losing the optimum position to cross and either put a poor cross in and more often still hitting the first defender? What can I change here to help this and more importantly why do they do this? They have good crossing stats? They even do this when there is a simple pass inside the full back to slip in the inside forward?

Which leads me nicely to my next issue, the inside forwards seem to have caught the same bug as the wingbacks. Doing exactly the same thing. How can I change this?

As always I was hoping to get some feedback on my team setup and any suggestions and pieces of advice would be most welcome. This is my first proper attempt at a side that is direct in their passing. Loving this tactic so far. Hope I'm not speaking too early and tactically I'm completely off the point?

Sorry forgot to say I have my keeper set to distribute to defender

I'm going to take this opportunity to explain why I chose the team instructions that I have and what I wanted to achieve by doing so.

Play ball out of defence: I selected this as I didn't want my team simply hoofing up hopeful long balls constantly leading to possession being lost too easily. What I wanted was them to wait until a passing option is on and then play direct.

Much higher defensive line: the idea here as per Bielsa and Sampaoli's team is to press as high up the pitch as possible. To choke the opposition of possession denying them time and space to play in.

Hassle opponents: I was in two minds about selecting this. I want my team to harrass the opposition players as much as possible starting from my front line. I want the opposition closed down quickly. I have wondered if this instruction would make me lose my team shape at times? If this is so I may consider unselecting this option and just keeping the player instructions to close down more on the players I want to do so.

Work ball into box: wanted my team to be patient in looking for players that have moved into good positions to receive the pass. Helps keep possession and helps to bring the wingbacks and central midfielders into the play.

Roam from positions: to create off the ball movement to help keep passing options open. I didn't want my team to be static. I know I'm using fluid already but I wanted more movement.

Play wider: I was hoping to stretch the play creating more space in the opponents half. I felt this was vital as my much higher defensive line can mean space and thus time on the ball for my players is limited.

Higher tempo: I wanted my transitions to be quickk but also I wanted the intensity of my pressing and closing down to real unsettle the opposition.

Stay on feet: didn't want my players diving in to the tackle all the time picking up bookings but also if the successfully tackle on their feet they are then instantly able to pass the ball turning defence into attack quickly.

More direct passing: although Bielsa and Sampaoli's team can keep the ball well they do look to spring defence into attack quickly often with a long or vertical pass. I feel this combined with play out of defence works well and replicates this style. Again fast transitions.

Just a further note on my inside forwards. I put them on get further forward because I needed them breaking beyond my false nine when he comes deep providing a genuine goal scoring threat. That is also the reason I've instructed my cm attack to do the same.

I hope the above makes sense and my tactical thinking is correct. Maybe I'm looking at things wrongly. If I am please advise. Your comments and feedback please.

I'm doing something similar trying to create the Biesla inspired Pochettino system at Tottenham. It's a tough one to get right. I started off using the counter mentality to create the fast transitions and getting the ball forwards, with short passing to keep the ball once forward. This worked in a way. The football was brilliant to watch sometimes but i just wasn't getting the results. I put that down to the counter mentality and high line and pressing just not working in tandem. I've started using control and this seems to be getting me the results. The football hasn't been as great to watch but it just feels a bit more balanced, definitely conceeding less goals. I do worry that this causes me to got get the ball forward as quickly and isn't true enough to the system i'm trying to create but i'm not sure how best to get it right

What is your possession stat like playing direct? I considered playing direct with work ball into box but was worried this wouldn't get the possession i desire.

On to your tactics. I reckon your issues with crosses is coming from selecting Work ball into box. This will make your team pass the ball around until they can pass it into the box and seems to discourage crossing.

I would also consider the play ball out of defense TI because Biesla loves transitions to be as fast as possible and get the ball into dangerous positions quickly.

I also wouldnt use stay on feet because soft tackling allows the other team to counter attack quickly which is exactly what you don't want. I use hard tackling PI on all my forward players because i would much rather commit a tactical foul high up the pitch than allow the opposition to counter without my players getting a foot in. Let the players tackle hard and the worst thing that happens is you stop their counter attack and the best is you win the ball in a dangerous position.

It's also worth noting that Biesla normally uses out and out wingers with the full back tucking inside and creating a central overload so if you set on creating a Biesla system i would change your inside forwards to wingers and perhaps give your wing backs instructions to cut inside. I don't know how this will work as it's not the system that Poch uses. He does the exact opposite and the forward players tuck in with the full back supplying the width.

Yes you are right about bielsa's use of full backs / wingbacks in his 3313 system. They are not traditional wingbacks but can be best described as "shuttlers". They are a cross between a wingback and a box to box midfielder making runs forward from wide angled more towards the centre. Impossible to recreate in fm14 in my opinion. Closest I've got to the effect is my using two outer cm's as box to box midfielders but it's not quite an exact replica.

In reference to the wingers I've gone more the sampaoli route with the attacking three. A common thought is that sampaoli uses a playmaker behind a standard front two. What actually seems to be the case is that the striker, who is creative (I've converted an amc to play here) plays as a false 9 dropping deep to receive the ball, the two strikers are more inside forwards, playing very wide and often making diagonal runs towards the goal. Think Sanchez and Vargas in the world cup for Chile. Both highly mobile inside forward types.

Both Bielsa and Sampaoli both play a very attacking brand of football. I would change to attacking from control if yopu wish to replicate the tactic more closely.

Possession wise I get around 50percent every game, sometimes more.

I wonder whether the community here can advise me on one or two changes I am considering making.

Firstly I was considering asking my complete wing backs to get further forward, in addition I was thinking of instructing my team to look for overlap. The idea being that this will encourage the inside forwards to come inside.

Also getting them to play wider or hug touchline.

Is this a good idea?

Also I'm thinking of taking off hassle opponents as I fear that if I'm playing two at the back vs a lone striker that they will both be drawn to him thus losing my shape defensively. Instead I was planning on asking my players where possible to close down more and to get stuck in / tackle harder. This means for my central defenders I won't have them closing down thus they will not be drawn out of position by a lone striker. This should also help me against the opposition when they look to quickly counter attack against me. Your thoughts please on this?

Bielsa's/Sampaoli's teams dominate possession.

I've probably spent this whole FM version trying to come up with a Bielsa/Sampaoli/Pep style pressing game. I've finally given up any hope of creating anything realistic, the closing down & team pressing is just too dire. What else can you do once you've done all the usual TI's? You can't go a step further, you just have to hope the default settings for those shouts are enough.

I have tried to come up with a bielsa style setup for a long time. Haven't played much fm14 yet, but defensively I would set it up like you. 3 central defenders against 2 strikers, or 2 central defenders against 1 striker, with remaining central defender pushed up to halfback. Attacking Wingbacks (providing width) - so not true Bielsa with WBs cutting inside as I don't think that will work. You can however use 2 BtB midfielders (as you mentioned) man marking wingers to emulate Bielsas "cut inside" wing backs. Not sure how it works in fm14 though and since wingbacks work really well providing width, I think thats the best choice.

Midfield I would use a DLF-s and maybe a box-to-box. I noticed the 2 midfielders took turns tracking back to help play out of defence (DLF-s), but ballwinning might work too?

The attacker setup is the tricky part imo. I'm not sure inside forwards are mobile/roaming enough to make it work in FM. I would consider an AM with 2 central strikers roaming and running into channels. I think they would move around better that way. You could experiment with any number of AMs/strikers actually and see what plays the best. Maybe 3 AMs would work with 1 or 2 working as shadow strikers?

Keep us updated how it works out

I would be interested in knowing what style you should use. Are you sure chile is considered fluid? I really have no clue, if balanced, fluid or very fluid.

The more I think about the way Bielsa and Sampaoli's liked to overload the final third with attacking options the more I think I should tell me complete wingbacks to get further forward. Upon further investigation the wing backs had a tendency to hug the touchline also.

This would give me between 5 and 7 runners supplementing my attacks. I'd say that's an attacking overload wouldn't you. The added width of my complete wingbacks hugging the touchline will also stretch the opposition more creating more space in the middle of the park. Is my thinking correct here guys?

Can't wait to give this a try when I get home. Damn it's attacking and probably vulnerable to the fast counter but then again so was Bielsa's and now Sampaoli's Chile side.

Tried the changes above with my complete wingbacks. Ggiving them the stay wider and get further forward instruction. What I found was that they were then too far forward and as a result harder for my central defenders to find with a pass and also left me too vulnerable defensively. I have now taken get further forward off but kept the play wider instruction which seems to work ok. Will continue to monitor.

I would love some critique of my team setup from the most experienced members of this forum. Previously I've found their advice invaluable in other tactics I've made.

hi

what about your results? For me it's impossible to recreate bielsa approach like so many coach's approach .

Well unbeaten in 17 games so far since I changed it

Hmmm.....i try your settings but it not concluant....when you play 4-3-3 where do you place your complete wing back?

do you use oi?

I am not one of those "experienced members" but it probably would be good if you screenshot your current formation/TI/PI?

One of the oft missed things about the "Bielsa/Sampaoli" tactical approach, amidst the many threads here trying to recreate them and becoming a bit frustrated about a lack of success, is that neither has actually been that successful in real life.

Everyone is captured by Bielsa great first season in Bilboa, but perhaps forget that his second season was very poor with a lot of questions over his managerial style and tactical approach.

I also like watching thier teams, but i wouldnt expect to dominate in FM with an approach, which whilst it captures the hearts, doesnt exactly capture many trophies

He laid out his approach fairly simply in a interview before.

"Our simple ethos is this: we try and win the ball back as quickly as possible from our opponents as far up the field as we can and by that I mean everyone is involved in regaining the ball, from the forwards through to anyone else.

"Then once we have the ball, we try and find a way of getting forward as quickly as possible, in a vertical direction if you like. But we don't get frustrated if we can't get it forward immediately, we aim to be comfortable on the ball, and if it's not a case of going forward straight away, we keep it."

What strategy would people say best represents the ''trying to get it forward immediately and if we can't we keep it'' part? Counter strategy?

Prolly higher tempo and push higher up has to be there. Obviously, it sounds like Control or Attacking which is better for possession retention in my opinion

One of the oft missed things about the "Bielsa/Sampaoli" tactical approach, amidst the many threads here trying to recreate them and becoming a bit frustrated about a lack of success, is that neither has actually been that successful in real life.

Everyone is captured by Bielsa great first season in Bilboa, but perhaps forget that his second season was very poor with a lot of questions over his managerial style and tactical approach.

I also like watching thier teams, but i wouldnt expect to dominate in FM with an approach, which whilst it captures the hearts, doesnt exactly capture many trophies

I'd disagree on the lack of success, in the year and a half that Sampaoli was manager at U de Chile he went a season unbeaten, won 3 Chilean championships and won the Copa Sudamericana for the first time with arguably a team of unknowns. Not bad for 2 years work.

Sampaoli has also i believe been solely responsible for the rise in prominence of a number of the Chilean players to international recognition. Who in Europe, outside the FM community, had heard of the likes of Eduardo Vargas, Marcelo Diaz, Charles Aranguiz, Eugenio Mena etc?

I think what has inspired me is not only his tactical ideas but Sampaoli's attention to detail and how he gets the best out of players. He can implement that high press, high tempo philosophy because he knows that he can rely on the players he puts out there to give there all and follow his instructions to the letter.

I think that is why, myself included, struggle to implement his tactical philosophy because it is difficult to get the same level of performance out of players on FM if they don't have the right stats.

I'm currently having some success with a Miguel Herrera/Sampaoli hybrid tactic with Club America but i'm lucky in the fact that pretty much the whole team have good work rate so are good at constantly pressing. Tried something with Dinamo Bucharest and it was a disaster because no one would press intensively enough so just got picked apart.

Through all the testing I've found though Standard philosophy works far better than attacking philosophy in terms of avoiding the through balls over the top. I still have bad games but on the whole possession is normally around 60%, top scorers in the league, best defense (although i concede from a 1/3 of the shots the opposition has against me) and best tacklers and passers in the league.

Tactic is as follows (posted it in the two playmakers thread as well):

Player stats to give you an idea of who's doing what:

In the process of doing a more detailed write on the game as a whole but it gives you an idea of shape and team instructions.

With due respect to Sampaoli, whilst his couple of seasons at Universidad was certainly a success, the Copa Sudamerica is not exactly the libertadores. He was also sacked from O'Higgins and Sporting Cyrstal prior to that.

Dont get me wrong, i love the style and approach and very much admire both Sampaoli and Bielsa, but neither can boast sucesss on a major scale (again with due respect to the Chilean league). There is a reason that this style is used by Chile and not by Italy/Brazil/Spain/Germany.

For all that Chile thrilled us in the WC, ultimately they went out to an awful Brazil team. The win over Spain was brilliant, exhilarating. However the Australia game they were brilliant for 45mins then pretty poor in the second half. The dutch game was a dead rubber but they ultimately lost it.

I will be interested to see how Bielsa gets on at Marseille. He has already made one slightly strange decision in getting rid of Valbuena who looked exceptional for France.

I guess my point was probably not so much aimed at you, as your tactic is well thought out and you are playing in an appropriate league. I just see quite a few people in here trying to make Man U or Arsenal or AC Milan or someone play the Bielsa/Sampaoli style and getting frustrated and surprised when its not a success. There is a reason that this style hasnt worked at the highest level quite yet (although Bielsa's first season in Bilbao was pretty damn good).............

And on that note, i am off to try and create a high pressing, attacking tactic for Liverpool............

No true but then you could argue they were unlucky to go out in the Semi Final of the Libertadores and could quite feasibly have won it. You only have to look at how U de Chile have suffered since he left to realise how much of an influence to any team he really is. I also think he seems to be the kind of coach that learns from his mistakes and will only get better as a coach.

I think the style is used to compensate for the arguably lesser ability of those players playing for Germany, Spain etc. and i guess it goes back to getting the best out of the players at your disposal.

World Cup wise i think they took their foot off the gas against Australia, brilliant again Spain, the Holland game could have gone their way on another day as could the Brazil game and who knows where they'd have ended up.

I agree with you that it will be interesting to see how both Bielsa gets on at Marseille and Schmidt at Leverkusen. The issue you'll always have at big clubs is getting the attacking players to put as much effort and work into pressing as the defensive players. The whole team has to operate as a unit and be 100% committed otherwise the tactic won't work.

I've found now the best approach to implement a Sampaoli style in FM is to take the core of his philosophies and adapt them to your surroundings as Sampaoli would. Analyse your opposition in minute detail and apply instructions as such, operate as 1 unit, 110% effort for the full 90 minutes, think of nothing else but having the ball and...

...you always need a Marcelo Diaz.

I agree, i think Sampaoli will improve and i also agree that systems such as these can be a way to take a team of good players (with the brilliant one thrown in) and make them great.

What i think is still the big question is, can the system take that team of good players, and make them a success against the "big boys". So can it take a Bilbao or someone like a Fiorentina or a Tottenham (made up examples, although Bielsa was linked heavily to Tottenham) and make them challenge the top table.

Its a shame in many ways that Bielsa's second season in Bilbao went south so quickly. In many ways the problem want soley with the tactics (the lose of Martinez and Llorente, then the strange experiments of playing players woefully out of position, the off the field drama's) but it also made it crystal clear that his tactics can only be a success with a very specific and committed player-set.

I love some of the concepts in your own tactic - The BPD(x) behing a Regista is very interesting. Also seeing how it all seems to have come together is great.

Would be great to see someone create a true Bielsa/Sampaoli replica and have sustained success with it in a top league......im just not quite man enough for the job!

Completely agree commitment is the key to both Sampaoli and Bielsa tactics, it falls apart without the commitment being there.

Interesting that you should mention the ball playing defender as I've tried to mold it on how Marquez played for Mexico during the world cup where he had a tendency to get further forward and act almost as a DM and take out any AMs. It also frees up dos Santos to do what he does best and that is dictate the tempo.

Another reason behind it was that i found having a cover duty in the centre of a back 3 that the central one would always have a tendency to close down the AM or DLF but often would do it too late. At least with having the stopper central they are already to look to win the balls back in those areas which helps keep a back 2 shape.

Yeah sustained success is always difficult and talking of sustained success last night saw me lose 1-0 to Chivas away. It was a bloody frustrating affair especially as the goal came from their only shot, a defensive miss control from my normally reliable captain Mosquera. At the other end we had plenty of chances and missed them all. Just has me worried that either teams have found a chink in my armour or the commitment from the players is wavering a bit.

Interestingly I was doing some analysis on last season and in 38 games, i took 477 shots, 204 hit the target, 28 hit the woodwork and 73 found the target with 110 Clear Cut Chances and 117 Half Chances. It was about a 16% conversion rate which was second highest in the league so not bad.

What was interesting though was the stats of shots and goals against me...196 shots, 83 on target, 11 hit the woodwork, 25 goals with 42 Clear Cut Chances and 44 Half Chances. A conversion rate of 30%, double mine and almost double the league average of 14%.

So that either tells me my keeper is rubbish, the opposition is for some reason is far more efficient against me than other teams or there needs to be some tweaking either the positions or through instructions.

I must say that the team as a whole do miss some absolute sitters which i guess come with the very high tempo to get the ball there in the first place. It is bloody annoying watching it knowing that roughly 1 in 3 shots the opposition has they are going to score.

Needless to say Chivas last night was no exception and also came about as a lack of concentration/commitment. Simple passes were poor, missed tackles and silly errors under no pressure so need to find a better way to address the mental side of the tactic and sustain the success.