The Creation of "Masterclass"

[srowark]

Introduction

Let's create an effective tactic. "Masterclass"

Meet the Team

Brighton and Hove Albion. Season 3. First season: promoted via playoffs (5th). Second season: Premier League - 15th. Media Prediction (upcoming season): 18th

Shape

Attacking:

The key part of the tactic will be the AMC - and the movement around him. I wanted a tactic where the AMC has an abundance of options in front of the ball. All too often in modern football the only option of going forward an AMC has, is to play in the striker, however often the striker is outnumbered 2:1. This results in the AMC losing the ball / passing backwards - ineffective possession. Lots of possession is good, and shows control. Ultimately, it's what you do with the possession that counts.

Defending:

On the back foot, we have strength in the most important area of the pitch - the middle. Back to basics: the goal is in the middle of the pitch, therefore the most dangerous area on the pitch when you are out of possession, is the middle. We don't want to give opposing playmakers any room. So, we use an aggressive presser of the ball (regista), along with a deep lying playmaker, and most importantly, a half back to hound opposing players in this key area.

Meet the key players:

Ivelin Popov

Anthony Knockaert

Diego

These three will be our choices of AMC over the coming season. I am unsure as to who should be first choice so I will rotate each equally - possibly selling one in January. Perhaps by then my tactic will have altered, in which case I might be able to fit two or even all three into the Brighton side.

The Instructions

I'm sure these will change in line with performances. The instructions will help me to achieve my aims of creating a tactic that:

Has effective possession

Creates a high number of CCCs / HCs

Is defensively stable

Over each game I will evaluate strengths and weaknesses and attempt to alter the tactic for the better. I will post match analysis after each game (to begin with) and you can follow along/give feedback.

[lam]

An interesting choice for formation and duties.

One thing that concerns me...... I mark your AMC out of the game and what happens?

Playing an Enganche, in my opinion, makes this more likely as they do not roam around as a TQ would.

Based on your role selection, Popov would be the natural choice. Has OTB where you are likely to need it. Has good first touch and decent creativity, however he lacks decision making abilities and is not really a team player, which is what they role is all about.

LAM

[deserter]

I suspect it may be important to get one of the deep playmakers to join up with the enganche. The regista might do this anyway, I'm not sure. I'd look into the possibility of a runner DM/S or BWM/S with some player instruction tweaks to make him more attack-minded.

I'm not a big fan of that throng of team instructions. Do you really need them all? I tend to have a few basic shouts that define the style of my team and beyond that I want to see how it develops naturally without any specific instructions. Then I tweak what isn't working too well.

I have toyed with the idea of three DM's lately anyway, but I haven't tried it yet. It's nice to see how this pans out.