Where did i go wrong?

[liam crane]

Hi all this is my 1st post for a few years so go easy on me i have red thru the forum and listened to the online podcasts and learned a hell of a lot i must say. I am playing a game at the mo with my beloved chelsea side and i have just had a very tough game against a very well organized spurs team. I set up as a 4-3-1-2 which i have never done before and i thought i did it quite well but i was wrong, spurs totally dominated me and i really could not figure where infact the flaw was. I have uploaded a pkm of the game and was wondering if someone would be kind enough to take a look and see where i am going wrong. You will see in arond the 35min spurs gave me the run around big time with lots of quick sharp short passes, but to be honest they didnt do a lot with it but it was still very annoying to watch. About 10 mins into the second half i went to a 4-1-2-2-1 and i ended up winning the game 3-1.

The main problems i just cant seem to sort out for my side is the tempo side of the setup. I set out slow narrow short passing which in parts was nice to watch plenty of possesion but if im honest not doing a great deal with it. I have tried a normal tempo with more direct passing but it results in ball being booted up field with no build up at all.

I would really appreciate any help in developing my setup, please find my pkm below

Thanks again

http://www.filefront.com/16734935/Chelsea%20v%20Tottenham.pkm

[ZdlR]

Could you elaborate a bit on the settings that you've used - it would be much quicker than trying to infer them from watching the game. So far I've got to the first Spurs goal and there's a couple of candidate problems with your tactics, but they could be red herrings without knowing what your settings are up front.

For example, from Dawson's free kick at ~4:02, you have a narrow back four and and even narrower midfield three as a screen. Lennon and Modric are in absolutely acres of space, as is Huddlestone, who receives the pass. Despite this, Deco and Malouda are both picking up Palacios while Terry and Ivanovic aren't tight to either Crouch nor Defoe, respectively. Once Huddlestone forwards the ball on to Modric you're already in trouble: Bosingwa has to react and start closing down, leaving space behind him that neither Lampard nor Essien are prepared to cover. This gives Ivanovic the slippery eel of Defoe to deal with alone. Luckily, Bosingwa makes the tackle but has no-one ahead of him to pass to. Regardless, he's closed down so quickly by Assou-Ekotto that he has no option but to pass it inside, choosing the slightly more advanced Deco than Lampard. Palacios is very well positioned to stop Deco getting set on the ball and nicks it away from him. After a bit of scrappy play, the ball ends up wide with Assou-Ekotto in bags of space, Bosingwa caught between marking Modric and Defoe and three other players just standing there offering him no assistance: Lampard, Essien and Ivanovic. As the ball comes in to Modric, Ivanovic and Terry both drop even deeper, with Essien and Mikel doing most of the defending. It's a very simple ball in to Crouch with no-one tight-marking Defoe or Crouch. In the end, there seems to be a lot wrong with the defensive set up, so it's hard to pinpoint just one bad setting.

I will keep watching and see if I can spot any patterns, but it appears that you're dropping too many people back in the middle (look where Palacios and Huddlestone are stood when Crouch receives the ball - they're not making any effort to get forward at all) while not dealing with the movement of the wingers and strikers. Aside from that, you're playing too narrow considering Spurs operate a 442. However, if you added width you'd concede a whole lot more space between your centre backs. I would suggest that you need to pick one of Mikel or Essien to drop back into the DMC slot. The pair of them are extremely lax during this whole move (I would not expect Lampard to contribute greatly to defending, although he could also do a bit more here). If you prefer to retain the current formation, try pushing the d-line up a whole heap (which would require a team-wide increase in closing down) or drop Essien and/or Mikel's mentality so that they shield the defence better.

I'll write more when I see anything else worth noting.

[ZdlR]

Freeze the frame at 6:35, where Lampard has possession just around 30 yards out. You have four players ahead of the ball: a right-back/wing-back, two strikers and your AMC. Spurs have 7 players behind the ball. Not only that, but both of your strikers are in straight line and your AMC has gone completely walk-about (I'm assuming he's on either 'roaming' or 'move into channels'). Thankfully, Anelka is not pushed right up against the centrebacks, but he's through ball is to the right back, who has cut inside instead. When you're playing two up top with a narrow formation like this, setting the wingbacks to 'hug touch-line' will add some much-needed width in attack.

[ZdlR]

Your equaliser is quite a nice goal, but I feel it might owe a lot to the individual skill of Anelka, rather than being particularly crafted. Plus, King firstly allows Anelka space to take a touch and is subsequently attracted to the ball and is turned too easily.

After that, though, Spurs 'go to a more attacking style' and you sit deep, inviting pressure. When you do get the ball, it's sideways pass, sideways pass and then hoof.

[ZdlR]

By 27:30, it's clear that you're fullbacks are closing down too much, leaving space behind them. A number of times, Spurs' wide midfielders have ran a little with the ball, attracting either Lampard or Mikel plus the corresponding full back and then passed round the corner to the striker.

You're giving away so much space in front of you that it seems you were worried about Defoe's pace?

[ZdlR]

Freeze the frame at 42:06 and look where Deco is off to. He should be stood just in front of Lampard to occupy Palacios or Huddlestone. Intead he's pushed as far forward as the strikers and is out on the left wing. He can't effect the game from there.

Are you set to loose and zonally mark throughout the back 7? It looks like it, and it is allowing the opposition too much time and space on the ball the pick a pass to another player in space.

I've reached half time and that's about as much as I'll watch for now. If you could provide your tactics that would be very useful because it is difficult to discern what the settings are without it.

Sadly, it looks like you've chosen the wrong formation in my opinion and, from there, it is hard to get a team to play well. I'd have preferred a 41221 like Mourinho's Chelsea, or perhaps a 41221 if I was confident of controlling possession in the opposition's half. At one point, Spurs passed it from wing to wing via their central midfielders a good three times without any meaningful challenge from your players. I think judicious tweaking of the marking settings would help there, but overall you'd want to be camped in Spurs half and dictating play - they set up expecting just that with two defensively minding central mids.

[ZdlR]

I put the 2nd half on Key Highlights and sort of whizzed through it. You did exactly the right thing going 41221 and it's no surprise that you ended up winning the game. You stymied Spurs fullbacks and had cover in a central position ahead of the centrebacks. It was a very wise move and you ended up turning a probable defeat into a victory, so for that. If I were you, I'd stick with the 41221.

[liam crane]

Hi mate i just realized that i didnt mention my players roles!! sorry about that. I shall explain, I had 1 cb as a topper and one as cover, my fullbacks were both on support with RFD mixed and a normal ment, Essien as a DLP support mikel lcm APM and lampard rcm as a CMA, deco as treq with roaming into channels and anelka as complete forward attack (RFD rare) with malouda on deep lying forward support (RFD mixed). I was playing narrow as i like my side to play compact but i dont know if this is working against me. I would like to play wide but feel it gives so much space to play in the gaps so to speak. I like to play with a deep defensive line to stop anyone getting in behind which has given me 7 clean sheets in 8 games. I tend to go with a normal tempo with more direct passing as well

[ZdlR]

In that case I would say that your main problem is the gap between defence and midfield. With no defensively minded midfielder dropping back and covering, plus a deep d-line, you concede a massive amount of space to the opposition and rely solely on your centre backs to defend the key goal mouth area.

You might well have secured 7 clean sheets, but what sort of quality was the opposition. I would say that, were you to come up against a league or European peer, that defaultset up would be picked apart.

[liam crane]

Yea you are spot on mate i guess the opo has not been great, I have just changed to a 4-2-3-1 and played madrid and they are like impossible to play against i drew 0-0 but dont no how. I set up my 2 cb as stopper and cover lb cole as support and bosingwa as attack, essien DLP from dm lampard rcm as advanced playmaker support, maulouda behind lone striker as attacking mid attack, anelka amr as inside forward attack and joe cole left midfield on attack. If you get a mo have a look at this game, its just mad how madrid plass the ball around. They play that stupid 4-2-4 setup but i just cant make the most of the centre of the park where they have no one!!!

http://www.filefront.com/16738381/Chelsea%20v%20R.%20Madrid.pkm