Dynamo Project 2022: Lobanovskyi's Dynamo Kyiv - Defend like 442, Attack like 433

[crusadertsar]

Recently I have been challenged by a friend to bring back my Dynamo Project series. Some of you might remember it. It was the very first thing I wrote on this forum. Seems so long ago now 

And, as the second part of the challenge he asked me to create a 4-4-2, that's not really a 4-4-2 in attack. Basically a formation that is solid and compact in defence and then morphs into a more dangerous beast when in possession. My favourite type of tactic! One with good defensive balance and yet a lot of dangerous movement via overlaps and overloads when attacking. A chance to showcase how even seemingly simplest formations can possess complex tactical assymetry and dynamics between false roles and shadow movements. 

And the inspiration for this challenge? I was always intrigued by the 4-4-2 that Valeryi Lobanovskyi used to trounce Van Gaal's Barcelona in 1997/98 Champions League. I watched that match live with my dad and it left a lasting impression on my young mind on how I viewed football ever since. Since then, football was never a game played by 11 individual. But a truly great team sport.

It was typical Lobanovskyi. "Collectivist" Football at its finest. His team defended as a collective unit, in very compact fashion in the traditional two banks of four. And then worked their boots off to counterpress and hit Barca hard on the counter. Lobanovskyi's boys controlled less of the ball but they definitely did more with it. They worked very hard, played selflessly with utmost discipline and followed closely the tactical gameplan layed out by the visionary Ukrainian coach.

With the exception of the two strikers, Shevchenko and Rebrov, Dynamo was not a team full of world-class talent. But they were a classic example of a team punching far above its weight (in Champions League at least) due to a combination of its parts being far superior than those parts were individually. Lobanovskyi's Dynamo Kyiv was a lean mean machine. So can Dynamo Kyiv in FM22 become the same?

More to follow 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by crusadertsar

[Aquaplex]

Looking forward to this.  Your simple 442 tactic article on fm byline was incredible last year.

[crusadertsar]

10 minutes ago, Aquaplex said:

Looking forward to this.  Your simple 442 tactic article on fm byline was incredible last year.

Thanks! That's exactly what I intend to do with this. Expand on the ideas I put out in the article. And making a simple 4-4-2 into the only tactic you will really need. It's a great classic formation! 

Edited November 16, 2021 by crusadertsar

[crusadertsar]

From young age Valeriy Lobanovskyi was an acolyte of scienctific theory and innovation. As was the case with most Soviet kids that came of age in the late 1950s, scientific advancement was the state religion, and its two gods … the atom and the computer. Gifted with an exceptionally analytical mind, 17 year old Lobanovskyi graduated from secondary school at the top of his class, with a silver medal. It was enough to get him accepted into the Kyiv's prestigious Polytechnic Institute. There he went to study heating engineering. Then of course, Valeriy's talent for football would push him on another path. Yet the early scientific formation did have a significant effect on how Valeryi would approach the game as a player and later as a coach. 

As a coach, Lobanovskyi held a very modern scientific approach to training. He put special focus on player conditioning in order to make sure that they played at their top efficiency during a long season. His rigorous training at the Polytechnic Institute influenced his systematic approach to tactics. Lobanovskyi viewed the game of football as a system of twenty-two interactive elements. Which he further subdivided into two subsystems of eleven elements each - two competing teams - moving in a defined area (the pitch) and limited by specific restrictions (rules of the game). According to Lobanovskyi, in the struggle of the two subsystems, the stronger one would always win. Or more specifically, the sub-system with the eleven elements that were moving most efficiently would inevitably win. The real question being, how could one arrive at such near perfect efficiency? It definitely does not just mean recruiting the best players.

In his, "Inverting The Pyramid” Jonathan Wilson answers this question in a truly wonderful passage.

“The efficiency of the sub-system was greater than the sum of the efficiencies of the elements that comprise it.”

The strength of the team is not in the combination of the individual strengths of its players, but in how well (and efficiently) they play together. In other words, to achieve maximum efficiency in a tactic, you should assign roles for your players that work well together and choose players that fit those roles the best. So let us further study these 11 important sub-system elements (the roles) of a tactic and the interactions between them. 

My formation has two distinct parts. The left half of the formation is where I group all of my “Ball Retention” roles. The two playmakers, wingback (on attack duty for now but I am wondering whether supporting wingback with an added “overlap” instruction might not actually work better) will act as our ball retainers and magnets. Such a collection of ball magnets and support duties plays into my strategy of relying on overloads and overlaps to create space for our attackers and “roamers”. Essentially, I want my most creative players and ones who are best at controlling the ball to be close together on the left flank. In possession, they should keep the ball in the left half and attract opposition players. The creative players will be involved heavily in the build-up and pass the ball around until an opening appears in the opposition defence or midfield as it shifts left (their right) to deal with our overload. An opening which can ideally be exploited by a cross-field pass to the shadow striker or our attackers/roamers on our right flank.

With the left flank orchestrating plays and the deep-lying forward dropping back to hold up the ball, most of my attacks should flow through my shadow striker, right inverted winger and, to an extent central midfielder (as a deep runner). Naturally, in these roles I will want my best attacking players and off the ball runners. Although given the style we are trying to recreate, well-rounded players with good work rate and teamwork are ideal. In the end, the players on the right side of the formation (and the shadow striker) are the ones who will need the mental attributes (such as anticipation, off the ball) to see the openings created by the left-hand overload and then pounce on them to create and finish chances (composure, finishing and acceleration).

So that is the central idea behind the formation and its specific collection of the roles. Creating overloads and exploiting them. It is something that I have been experimenting with for several years now in Football Manager. With every version of FM I am trying to find new ways to make this strategy better. And in FM22 it is the first time I am trying overloads with a 4-4-2 shape.

NOTE: Yes I know that technically my formation is not a standard 4-4-2 with its AMC-position Shadow Striker. But I believe that this hard-working role essentially acts like a striker (as is its purpose) and the formation transforms into a three striker formation in attack. For my overloads to work I need a striker that starts deeper in midfield, than any other traditional striker role, and gets involved heavily in the build-up, as a good shadows striker will do, before aggressively attacking the space liberated by the left-flank overload. A versatile hard-working attacker in the mold of Andriy Schevchenko. If I were to build my tactic around a single player, the Shadow Striker would be that role.

NEXT: Team Instructions – Less is More Sometimes

Edited November 17, 2021 by crusadertsar

[aritra14]

Just finished playing a season and I believe the team I have managed to assemble a squad (attached) will be a good fit for this system (although not at the same club). Will follow this thread before starting a new season, so the players can adopt it quickly. 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by aritra14
grammar

[CarlSaunders]

This is superb. After many versions not going anywhere near 442, this year I've decided to go for a hard working 442 - more inspired by Clough. However, thoroughly looking forward to reading more from you.

[crusadertsar]

36 minutes ago, aritra14 said:

Just finished playing a season and I believe the team I have managed to assemble a squad (attached) will be a good fit for this system (although not at the same club). Will follow this thread before starting a new season, so the players can adopt it quickly. 

 

 

Wow nice attributes! What a great bunch of Total Footballers you got there 

Curious, what club are you? Are those starting players or newgens? 

Edited November 17, 2021 by crusadertsar

[aritra14]

48 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Curious, what club are you?

Bayern Munich

48 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Are those starting players or newgens?

Few of the starting players are there (Model Professional - Kimmich, Perfectionist - Goretzka). Rest are transfers, position retrains and newgens (especially the last one )

Edited November 17, 2021 by aritra14

[crusadertsar]

After running my 4-4-2 tactic for about 4 in-game months with, you guessed it, Dynamo Kyiv, here are some take away messages:

 

1) Team Instructions – Less is More.

Indeed, using less tactical instructions can potentially lead to better outcomes. Or at least be less damaging to your sanity.

And not to mention, once you see that results are not going as expected, it is much easier to analyze and make small tweaks. As opposed to trying to figure out what is going wrong in a tactic with almost every single tactical instruction ticked off. Also when operating in lower leagues or with less than-worldclass players (with lower mental attributes especially), it is preferable to have tactics with less instructional load on your players. Less instructions = more chance that they will stick with the gameplan and make less costly errors trying to do 10 contradictory things at the same time. 

Thus when creating tactics it is better to have less instructions sometimes. Besides it looks neater on the tactics screen.

If anything, eight team instructions in total is probably still a tad too much for my taste. But this is still a tactic in progress with a lot more work to do in making it more efficient and effective. More lean and mean.

Essentially, you will need at least few key instructions to commence the in-possession build-up. This is the part that I don't want my team to rush. We don't want to give the ball away needlessly. Especially not when we are not actively striving to have the most possession. In contrast to my usual Total Football tactics, with this Lobanovskyi-inspired tactic I'm aiming for something different. And that brings us to my next take-away message. 

2) High Pressing is not a "Win All" button. And neither is Low Defending a "Lose All" button.

I am getting a little tired seeing all the tactics on these forums with a very specific combination of instructions. You know which ones.

Of course, everyone has the right to play the game as they wish. And to be perfectly frank, I was using those exact instructions not too long ago in my Total Football recreation project. Sometimes with certain historical styles of football you cannot help it. But not every team needs to play Total Football.

And no, inherently there is nothing wrong with the combination of counterpress, high defensive line, high line of engagement and extreme closing down ("trigger press" if you are playing FM22). They are just instructions that a lot of FM players like to use right now. But is there truly only a single way to win in the game? No, of course not. Variety is the spice of life and in FM22 many playing style, other than the popular Gegenpress, can be successful. 

Thus my secondary goal with the Dynamo Project, is to show that playing with a standard or low defensive line and lower line of engagement can be quite successful.  Even if your club is one of the top dogs in its league. As my chosen team, Dynamo Kyiv, indeed is. Using those instructions does not mean you are playing counter-attacking football or that you are playing defensively. No in my opinion, it is a way to play pragmatic, balanced football. 

Most importantly, having a more compressed and organized defence (we are using split press on the top 6 players) has given us a huge advantage. Conceding a single goal in some four months of domestic competition is almost unheard of in real football. Even for a top club in the league. But it appears to be possible to achieve in the game. Given a right balance of team instructions. Although as you can see, we still have some work to do in playing better against elite competition in the Champions League. But I am not surprised with the results there. Those will steadily improve as the quality of my footballers improves with each season. I am actually looking forward to see the improvements that can be made on our youth recruitment front, given the quality of Dynamo Kyiv's facilities.

We are going to have some nice newgen wonderkids coming through the academy soon!

 

3) Shadow Fencing - False 9/False 10 Dynamics work really well in FM22!

Football journalist often speak of the Dark Arts of football when referring to the more violent, unsportsmanlike side of the sport. However, few mention the Shadow Arts – the art of subterfuge and trickery. The art of tricking your opponent and using tactical deceit to achieve one’s goal. Similar to feint and parry strategy in fencing. Such strategies are one of the reasons why I love crafting football tactics. The satisfaction of coming up with a ruse to lure your opponent in and then strike them when they least expect it, can be downright climactic.

 

Thanks to the more elaborate technical football style popularized by modern managers like Marcelo Bielsa and his pupil Pep Guardiola, we have become somewhat habituated to the use of football’s Shadow Arts. Even if we do not realize it when we see it. Nowadays, the terms false 9, inverted winger, inverted wingback and shadow striker have become commonplace and mundane. To our trained ears, such terms have become seemingly commonplace concepts, largely due to the amount of media coverage these super-star managers have had. But do we truly understand what goes on behind the curtain in the magic show that Bielsa puts on night after night?

This is one of the oldest and most basic tricks in the shadow play handbook. Instruct one player to move into a different position on the pitch to act as a different role from his original position and role. At the same time you have another player moving into the position liberated by the first player. And simple interchange of positions and roles that proves not be so simple for the opposition defenders to deal with.

In the game the two roles that represent this type of dynamic are the Shadow Striker and False 9 /Deeplying Forward. 

The false nine & false ten partnership is completely build around the central striker dropping deep (to draw opposition defender with him) and as a result creating more attacking space for his deeper attacking partner to move into. This partner, the shadow striker, will either use the opened-up space to move into a dangerous position to score a goal or simply try to unsettle the defence and allow better opportunities for the other forwards.

ABOVE: My main Shadow Striker at Dynamo Kyiv. Even more than his attributes, I like his player traits, two of which are ideal for the role. Gets Into Opposition Area and Moves Into Channels

The Shadow Striker (False 10) starts as an advanced midfielder and then pushes from deep into the space vacated by the False 9 (or Deeplying Forward) to emerge as the main goal-scoring threat. The False 9/DLF acts as a feint while the False 10 is the deadly parry. So far I noticed that False 9 and Shadow Striker partnership links up very well in the final third, and this tends to suit perfectly the intricate movement-based tactical system that I'm trying to develop. But this does not mean that your Deeplying Forward of False 9 is a toothless role that is nothing but a decoy for the Shadow Striker. To the contrary, he can by as much of a goal threat as the shadow striker, if not even more. As I mentioned above, sometimes the intricate movement of the Shadow Striker can draw defenders and allow a different angle of attack for the DLF. To this effect, it helps having two great finishers in both roles. Even if on paper you are playing with a single central striker and advanced midfielder, in reality it is very much a two striker system. 4-4-2 in every sense.

 

And here is the glimpse of one of my two Deeplying Forwards - Eric Ramirez, who had a very good start to the season playing as the partner to my Shadow Striker. 6 goals in 7 appearance. In 6 of which he was a substitute. 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by crusadertsar

[Tibalg]

I’m interested to see you position map, especially in attack. 
You have two players going inside from the wings, how is it going on the right side ? Does the IW-CM-DLF are not occupying the same space ?

And you changed also your CB role. Is the Cover/Stopper working well ? I assumed they are making nice diamond, especially on the left. 

[crusadertsar]

7 hours ago, Tibalg said:

I’m interested to see you position map, especially in attack. 
You have two players going inside from the wings, how is it going on the right side ? Does the IW-CM-DLF are not occupying the same space ?

And you changed also your CB role. Is the Cover/Stopper working well ? I assumed they are making nice diamond, especially on the left. 

Not sure if this is the best positioning pic I could take, but here is one from our victory over Zorya. My right IW (#22) and CM (#5) and DLF (#73) all occupy separate areas and in fact make a nice passing triangle between each other. And Cover/Stopper is indeed working very well. I will have to discuss the two players that I use there in another update when I have more time. 

[HurkaDurk69]

40 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Not sure if this is the best positioning pic I could take, but here is one from our victory over Zorya. My right IW (#22) and CM (#5) and DLF (#73) all occupy separate areas and in fact make a nice passing triangle between each other. And Cover/Stopper is indeed working very well. I will have to discuss the two players that I use there in another update when I have more time. 

Looks really good, how are you finding the left side? the WB and LM are a bit too close to eachother for my liking and the DLP a bit too far away. But if it works and looks better during gameplay it isn't a problem ofc

[crusadertsar]

6 hours ago, HurkaDurk69 said:

Looks really good, how are you finding the left side? the WB and LM are a bit too close to eachother for my liking and the DLP a bit too far away. But if it works and looks better during gameplay it isn't a problem ofc

I haven't found any issues with the left. Like I mentioned in previous update, it's really solid defensively judging by the amount of goals we conceded domestically in four months.

I might need to add "narrower" width to team instructions to help the left side to help them play closer together. Or individual "narrower" instruction to the Wide Playmaker. 

Edited November 24, 2021 by crusadertsar

[Vokes]

On 23/11/2021 at 04:27, crusadertsar said:

Most importantly, having a more compressed and organized defence (we are using split press on the top 6 players) has given us a huge advantage.

Are you achieving this split by individual pressing instructions on the 6 players?

[crusadertsar]

23 minutes ago, Vokes said:

Are you achieving this split by individual pressing instructions on the 6 players?

Exactly via "close down more" individual instruction on the six front players. Sometimes I leave the DLP out when I want more defensive stability but haven't really noticed the difference.

[branco2511]

Amazing thread, as always @crusadertsar! Keep up the good work. I really like the playstyle, and I'm always looking to implement a wide playmaker in my tactic, because i like the concept of that. 

I slightly modified your tactic to a 4-1-4-1, because it suits my players better. Instructions and roles are roughly the same. Only change i made: SS becomes a CM(a). So you'll get this:

                                                 GK

WB(d)           NCB(c)                          CD(d)                            WB(s)

                                            DLP(s)

IW(a)            CM(s)                           CM(a)                           WP(s)

                                           DLF/PF(s)

 

It does it's job so far! Would love to implement an attacking forward, so that will be my next modification. 

[crusadertsar]

5 hours ago, branco2511 said:

Amazing thread, as always @crusadertsar! Keep up the good work. I really like the playstyle, and I'm always looking to implement a wide playmaker in my tactic, because i like the concept of that. 

I slightly modified your tactic to a 4-1-4-1, because it suits my players better. Instructions and roles are roughly the same. Only change i made: SS becomes a CM(a). So you'll get this:

                                                 GK

WB(d)           NCB(c)                          CD(d)                            WB(s)

                                            DLP(s)

IW(a)            CM(s)                           CM(a)                           WP(s)

                                           DLF/PF(s)

 

It does it's job so far! Would love to implement an attacking forward, so that will be my next modification. 

Nice! 4-1-4-1 is one of my favourite football formations. Really solid defensively (two banks of four) while the presence of DM gives improved potential for offensive penetration from three different strata. If I wasn't using 3-4-3 diamond and 4-4-1-1 in my current saves, I would probably be running a good 4-1-4-1. Universal Swiss knife of football formations.

Edited December 3, 2021 by crusadertsar

[Skywalk3r83]

On 16/11/2021 at 17:29, crusadertsar said:

Thanks! That's exactly what I intend to do with this. Expand on the ideas I put out in the article. And making a simple 4-4-2 into the only tactic you will really need. It's a great classic formation! 

Where can I read this? Do you have a link? 😇

[crusadertsar]

6 hours ago, Skywalk3r83 said:

Where can I read this? Do you have a link? 😇

Here you go 

https://www.footballmanager.com/the-byline/how-create-simple-winning-tactics-fm21

 

 

[Skywalk3r83]

7 hours ago, crusadertsar said:

Here you go 

https://www.footballmanager.com/the-byline/how-create-simple-winning-tactics-fm21

 

 

Thanks 😊 

[crusadertsar]

Looking forward to testing this more, now that the first major update to ME is finally out

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by crusadertsar

[MattyLewis11]

I have just picked up on this thread and have immediately added to my reading list 🤓

Comments to follow...

[MattyLewis11]

You know how much of a fan I am of creating overloads, however, this shadow arts is something which I have become familiar with in my FM22 save with Betis.

I have been playing Borja DLF with Fekir as the SS which I had initially labelled the Yo-Yo with the one moving out and the other exploiting and I must admit it is, like an overload another thing of beauty on the pitch. 

[crusadertsar]

13 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said:

You know how much of a fan I am of creating overloads, however, this shadow arts is something which I have become familiar with in my FM22 save with Betis.

I have been playing Borja DLF with Fekir as the SS which I had initially labelled the Yo-Yo with the one moving out and the other exploiting and I must admit it is, like an overload another thing of beauty on the pitch. 

Totally agree! It's a thing of beauty. I love watching some of the goals that my DLF (Ilya Skhurin) and Shadow Striker (Buyalskyi or Artem Beseyedin) managed between them. DLF/Shadow Striker partnership is easily my favourite role combo in FM22 so far.

[crusadertsar]

Long-overdue end of season update coming tonight and over the next couple of days . I'll be sharing my plans and hopes on once again making Dynamo Kyiv into a powerhouse in the Champions League. To bring back the glory days of late 1990s. 

Also, defending like 4-4-2 but attacking like 3-5-2? Myth or reality? Something that I am hoping to dispel with my Dynamo tactical experiment. 

 

[gokalpcakir1]

9 dakika önce, crusadertsar said:

Long-overdue end of season update coming tonight and over the next couple of days . I'll be sharing my plans and hopes on once again making Dynamo Kyiv into a powerhouse in the Champions League. To bring back the glory days of late 1990s. 

Also, defending like 4-4-2 but attacking like 3-5-2? Myth or reality? Something that I am hoping to dispel with my Dynamo tactical experiment. 

 

Is it possible to share the file attachment of your tactic?

[crusadertsar]

Just now, gokalpcakir1 said:

Is it possible to share the file attachment of your tactic?

For sure. I'm at work now. But later tonight when I post the update I will share the latest tactic I'm using 

[crusadertsar]

Dynamo Project: Defend like 4-4-2, Attack like 4-3-3

 

This project isn't an exact replication of specific formation that Lobanovskyi used (or may have used) at Dynamo Kyiv. Rather it's my aim to create a formation that draws heavy inspiration from Lobanovskyi's tactical philosophy without necessarily trying to copy or recreate it. I don't think that it will ever be possible in FM22. Or in any version of Football Manager for that matter. Mostly I want to use this series to generate more tactical discussion. And perhaps make you, the reader, think about Valeryi Lobanovskyi and his football ideas on a deeper level. Hopefully bringing attention to a few misconceptions that some might have about this great, but sadly underappreciated, Ukrainian manager.

And if following this guide helps with your own similar tactical goals then that always makes me happy. It is always a nice bonus when my vain tactical musings can help out other fellow Football Manager players.

Firstly, Lobanovskyi's Dynamo did not only play high pressing, proto-geggenpress style. Of course there was a fair share of pressing and high line defending. Much like his peer Arrigo Sacchi (one manager that I often see compared to Lobanovskyi) Lobanovskyi loved to use the offside trap to catch his opponents behind his high defence.

But Valeryi also liked to ask his players to defend lower as a compact unit. A unit that would outnumber and compress the space into which the opponents could attack. Then at the first opportunity he would have them counter-attack at speed and using the full width of the field.

"One thing remained central: keep the preferred playing area as large as possible while in possession, and as small as possible while the opponent had the ball." - Jonathan Wilson, "Inverting The Pyramid"

Rather simple idea, to defend narrow and attack wide. But much harder to achieve consistently on the pitch.

Secondly, many assume that like his predecessor and mentor Victor Maslov, Lobanovskyi always stuck with a traditional 4-4-2 formation. It is true that Maslov famously "invented" that formation. In his turn, Lobanovskyi was deeply influenced by Maslov's theories on pressing and using two banks of four in defence. But Valeryi Lobanovskyi's own take on 4-4-2 was a whole other beast. While on paper Lobanovskyi might have used a narrow diamond (4-1-3-2), when attacking it looked more like a 3-5-2. Or even 4-3-3 at times. Again it was rather hard to pin-point the exact formation that he used from game to game. Except for the central tenants of defending deep and with numbers and attacking wide, along three lanes. 

Especially during1990s in Champions League, we often saw Dynamo employ a hybrid 4-1-3-2/3-5-2 shape more frequently. Sometimes it even looked like a more defensive 5-3-2. Both 3-5-2 and 5-3-2 offered better defensive stability (back three) combined with unique offensive qualities of having two strikers and greater numbers in midfield. Lobanovskyi himself called his unique hybrid formation, a "stretched diamond".

No matter which formation Lobanovskyi's Dynamo employed during his second stint as Dynamo manager, he always stuck to one principle. Lobanovskyi always wanted his players to attack in three lanes: left, centre and right. A three-pronged offensive trident that was able to cut its ways through almost any defence. A trusted 4-4-2 defensive shape, that morphed into 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 in possession. Or if Dynamo needed to defend a narrow lead against a tough opponent in Champions League, Lobanovskyi would have them compress down into 5-3-2. 

This brings us to the three check points in my continuing road-map for the rest of this project:

• Play BALANCED - both defensively and offensively solid - football. Not to focus too much on any one tactical extreme, be it intense gegenpressing or overly pragmatic defensive strategies (a la Jose Mourinho). Just play good football and don't be afraid to be flexible from game to game. Especially between domestic and European opponents.
• Develop an interesting hybrid tactic. That is, a formation that's 4-4-2 in defence and then turns into 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 when in possession or counter-attacking.
• Have a tactic with 3 consistent lanes of attack. Again inspired by Lobanovskyi, I want to attack through left, centre and right formation spaces. For example, left wingback, central striker and right wide midfielder. 

Another point to check off in this journey, is not so much a tactical one. And it's not one that I'm going to stress myself too much over, if I don't achieve it within the first couple of seasons. That is to make Dynamo Kyiv into a Champions League powerhouse, similarly to how it was under Lobanovskyi's leadership. Realistically, the current team still has ways to go to reach the same level as that late 1990s Dynamo team. But hopefully by achieving the above 3 goals (and by improving the team through sensible transfers and youth development) we can get the club back to that level in not too distant future.

To this day, Lobanovskyi's Dynamo Kyiv remains the last club from former USSR (or from any country from behind Iron Curtain) to have reached the semi-final of Champions League. So I will be happy if I can get Dynamo Kyiv back to Champion's League semi-final again. And if I can achieve this feat in less than a decade then I will be more than happy.

Note On Lobanovskyi's Hybrid Formation

Lobanovskyi called his unique formation, a "stretched diamond". Why?

Unlike a regular 4-4-2 diamond formation, Dynamo's shape in the late 1990s differed in how it utilized one midfielder in a much wider position than the other two who tended to stay more central. Effectively a hybrid between a standard 4-4-2 and a narrow diamond. In the role of this "wide" midfielder/quasi-winger Lobanovskyi utilized the highly versatile and hard-working Vitaliy Kosovskyi.

Kosovskyi acted as both a left central midfielder in the "standard" 4–1–3–2 and as a left winger partner for Shevchenko and Rebrov. With Kosovskyi pushing up on the flank, during attack the formation practically turned into a 4–3–3. This was rather reminiscent of how Fergusson utilized his own 4-4-2 formation with Man United.

And Kosovskyi could also defend. His lightning speed made it possible for him to retreat into a deeper defensive position and act as a left-back. While at the same time, the actual left-back Kakha Kaladze could drop inside as a third central defender. In this way the formation could be converted into 5–3–2 for ultimate defensive cover. And then attack as a 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 when possession was regained.

Besides the right wing threat of Kosovskyi, there was also the deadly striker duo of Rebrov and Shevchenko. The trio of Rebrov, Shevchenko and Kosovskyi always attacked three lanes: right, left and center. It didn't matter what the final formation was or who filled the roles, there were always three players attacking those three lanes. This was split into two methods, the first being a player attacking one of the wide lanes - either Kosovskyi on the left, or the more attacking right-back, Oleh Luzhny, on the right. While Rebrov and/or Shevchenko attacked centrally. The second method was if Rebrov and Shevchenko went wide, stretching the opposition defence and allowing a central runner (Belkevich) to move forward.

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by crusadertsar

[crusadertsar]

9 hours ago, gokalpcakir1 said:

Is it possible to share the file attachment of your tactic?

 

And below is the tactic file 

Lobanovskyi.fmf

[Novem9]

Perfect as always! I'm not thrilled for obvious reasons  but Lobanovskiy is really great coach. Btw he predicted moderh shape of football in 1988th year - lack of individuality, no long shots, compactness, fluid formations.

Did you watch Rubin / Rostov of Kurban Berdyev? Very interesting to see your interpretation of his 532 which he won 2 RPL trophies and beated Pep's Barca in Camp Nou among other things

Thank you for this thread anyway! 

[Novem9]

В 16.12.2021 в 08:14, crusadertsar сказал:

 

And below is the tactic file 

Lobanovskyi.fmf 44 \u043a\u0411 · 33 downloads

A little confused about your interaction of WP-DLP. No conflict of two playmakers on short distance?
First impulse is using CM(d)/DM(d) on this position for me as classic middle cover for me  Could you educate me please?

[crusadertsar]

2 hours ago, Novem9 said:

A little confused about your interaction of WP-DLP. No conflict of two playmakers on short distance?
First impulse is using CM(d)/DM(d) on this position for me as classic middle cover for me  Could you educate me please?

It is very intentional, to create an overload on that side. Attract the ball and opposition. And then release it to the opposite flank to exploit the space. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by crusadertsar

[crusadertsar]

2 hours ago, Novem9 said:

Perfect as always! I'm not thrilled for obvious reasons  but Lobanovskiy is really great coach. Btw he predicted moderh shape of football in 1988th year - lack of individuality, no long shots, compactness, fluid formations.

Did you watch Rubin / Rostov of Kurban Berdyev? Very interesting to see your interpretation of his 532 which he won 2 RPL trophies and beated Pep's Barca in Camp Nou among other things

Thank you for this thread anyway! 

No didn't know about Kurban Berdyev! Wow, but will definitely have to read about him now 

[JurgenSchmidt]

Awesome content man, can't wait to see how it turns out!

[ta11zx]

Any updates? 

[crusadertsar]

3 hours ago, ta11zx said:

Any updates? 

Working on finishing my second season before putting out another update. But soon hopefully 

[lipebtavares]

in relation to the attributes of the players, which are the main ones?

[Lbsaligh]

This has been a fantastic read and shame there has not been a season 2 update! In terms of player instructions, is it just the “close down more” instruction you use on the front 6 players or are there others you use also?