Let Me Tell You About My Best Friend.... Space!

[bababooey]

Before I start this post, I just want to extend my gratitude to Rashidi / Daljit / BustTheNet.  I have learned so much from his posts and videos. He is truly one of the coolest people out there, and I'm jealous of his collection of kits, except for Liverpool.

 

Okay, let's get right down to business....

All team sports require the use of space. I would argue that space is the most important concept in team sports, from a tactical point of view. 

Obviously this forum is about football manager tactics, so we're going to ignore the other sports, but it's good to recognize that space is vital in so many other games.

When I think about space in football, I think about answering a couple of questions. What can be achieved with controlling space? How do teams actually do this? What does it look like in practice?

Many articles have covered the so-called "golden zone" and the "half spaces." These are spaces we hear about all the time, and rightfully so, as they are very very very important areas.

I want to focus on something else, which is....

Using Space in Pursuit of Defense

I believe Pep Guardiola once said something like: "the touchline acts as another defender" as he discussed the way his teams press the opposition to win the ball back.

As you can see in the image above, I have highlighted the spaces I want to discuss.

The touchline is, in my opinion, a perfect defender. He cannot be dribbled past, and he cannot miss an interception. He doesn't lose headers, and he never gets tired.

Therefore, he is the perfect defender.  You should look to utilize him as often as you can! And the best part? He's entirely free! Doesn't matter what your budget is. He works for you for nothing.

Knowing what we do about this perfect defender, let's look at how we can use him properly.

We are going to use a combination of strategies / ideas including: specific player instructions, opposition instructions, and to a lesser-extent, team instructions.

The basic idea is to force the opposition team to play in spaces where they do not have numerical superiority AND / OR, where we feel confident we can win the ball back. I think for the vast majority of teams, the space you want to deny access to is the flanks.  This is because the flanks force defenders into a tough choice. If you're a CM, like #8 in yellow, and you go to close down the blue team's #11, then you are leaving the blue team's #10 in acres of space to really hurt you. Another way to explain it is like this: you want the opposition to find that using the flanks is akin to kicking the ball into a brick wall.  Passes to the flanks should be highly contested so that wide players do not have the ability to utilize space, and create opportunities.

If passes to the flanks are not working, it forces the other team to play in highly contested space, which is highlighted in blue below..

There are a few things going on here, so let's break it down.  (Also, keep in mind that the "defending" team in this case is the yellow circles).

1. Notice the new markings on the pitch. The white circles highlight 1v1 matchups near the touchline, which essentially become 2v1 because of our perfect defender. The blue zone is where we want the opposition to be forced to play the ball back into. The black lines represent the body angle of the defender (arguably this is the most important part, because we are showing the advanced wide players to the outside).

2. You can also see that the yellow team players are tightly marking their opponents. This is a very important aspect of defending space in this manner. However, not ALL players are expected to tightly mark.

3. I suppose you could refer to this a trap of sorts. The blue team looks for a pass out wide, and is immediately met with heavy resistance. So the ball has to go back into the middle, and the only real way for the blue team to create chances is if they take more risks by moving one of their central players into space that isn't occupied. If they do this, they risk losing the ability to control space centrally, because they will be outnumbered. (For example, if #8 in blue darts forward into space, the blue team will now only have 2 players in the middle of midfield for a period of time).

4. Notice the difference between how the yellow team defends the blue team's fullbacks vs. the wingers. The fullbacks are shown towards the inside, while the wingers are shown down the flanks. Why, you ask? Because the vast majority of fullbacks / wingbacks are players who benefit the most from going forward and hugging the line. They are far less dangerous when shown inside, where they're forced to pass the ball either backwards or sideways.  We do NOT want them passing the ball to the wingers ahead of them. Wingers / advanced wide players are far more dangerous when they can cut inside, so we deny them that space and force them to stay on the touchline against our "perfect defender."

5. full backs / wing backs being shown inside does not mean that we don't plan to mark them tightly or defend them aggressively. We don't want them creating numerical advantages in the middle, we just want them to be forced to pass in that direction.  So from a defensive standpoint, it's important to make sure they're marked tightly, but shown to the inside.

Here are The Details:

If you want to defend like this and trap your opponents, I'm going to explain exactly how I do it.

Our formation is a 4-2-3-1 just like the one you see all the time in FM. No deeper CM's, no pushing back the wingers. I play this on a positive team mentality. Higher defensive line. Trigger press more often.  Prevent short GK distribution (but sometimes I turn this off if the GK is really really good at long kicks). Defensive width is left to default. Tackling is default, and we do not select the offside trap nor do we select tight marking.

In transition, we counter-press and sometimes I will use "counter" as well, but it's not integral to this trap.

Now, there is one very important player instruction, and that is: "mark tighter."  In my 4-2-3-1, I instruct my fullbacks and wingers to "mark tighter." This is NOT the same as asking them to tightly mark a specific player! We don't want our guys chasing a specific player all over the place, dragging them out of position and potentially blunting our attack. 

The impact of using "mark tighter" on these players is that we effectively create a "tight zonal" approach where, when an opposition player looks to play in the space we are marking tightly, they'll be met with immediate resistance.

It's important to note that the goal here is to prevent the opposition wide players from receiving the ball to begin with. It's not about marking someone tightly who already has the ball (although that can and will happen at times).  This is a proactive approach, not a reactive approach.

We then use opposition instructions on the opponents in the following method:

Wingers are shown wide by setting, for example, a winger on the right side to their right foot.

Full backs are shown inside by setting, for example, a full back on the right side to their left foot.

Wingers + Full backs + Strikers are all set to always mark tighter

Central defenders + GK's are closed down more often, but not marked tighter.

Another thing I like to do, is target specific players with low bravery / composure and utilize harder tackling on them. This can work wonders.

Concerns and Questions You Probably Have:

So, I bet some of you are thinking:

"why are you tight marking strikers?? Won't they just escape your defenders and get in behind easily?"

"Same as above, but for wingers! Won't they just beat their man for pace and get in a cross?"

"why do you use player instructions combined with opposition instructions?"

"Okay smart guy, what happens when a team is playing a narrow formation?"

So here are my answers to these questions....

1. Remember that this idea here is to be proactive with the control of space. In order to do that, you have to be willing to adopt a relatively risky approach to defending. You need your players to be combative and fight to control the space. Strikers being tightly marked is not an automatic "lose setting" which some of you will no doubt believe that it is. It's about making sure that when the opposition plays a ball into the strikers, that they are met with forceful resistance immediately with the goal of denying them the ability to get on the ball. Bad things happen when strikers are able to control the ball high up the pitch and play in other teammates, especially wide players who cut inside! We want to prevent this from happening in the first place.

2. Wingers crossing early could, in theory, be a problem.  But again, like in the point above about strikers, this is all about being proactive. We don't want to allow the wingers any space to control the ball and look up for a pass or cross. We don't want them doing anything. We just want to crush them the second the ball is approaching them, whether it's via the air or via the ground. The winger's pace is nullified in this approach, especially if you've got players who are mentally quite strong, and can read the game well.

3. The reason for combining player instructions with opposition instructions is that it's a very effective and powerful approach. I believe Rashidi calls this idea "iron maiden" where you lock down a player with the use of both of these instructions.  The other part of this, is that the player specific instructions are more about controlling a zone / space. The opposition instructions are more about what to do when a player attempts to enter that space.

4. Elephant in the room..... what happens with narrow formations? The principles do NOT change here. Narrow formations don't exist in a vacuum where the rules don't apply to them simply because they're narrow. They still need to utilize width, they just do it in a different way, often times relying on 2 players like wingbacks to patrol the entire flank. You can absolutely apply these concepts to an opposition team that is narrow, AND you can use it if your team is playing a narrow shape, too!  I do this with a 4-3-1-2 all the time now, and it works great. You keep using "mark tighter" as a player instruction on your wide players, even if you only have 2 in a narrow shape. And for the opposition instructions, the only thing you need to watch for, is that typically, teams playing in a narrow shape like a 4-3-1-2 or a 5-3-2 will have fullbacks who are operating like classic wingers. So you have a decision to make there.  If you show them to the inside, you can nullify their attacking threat, but it does give them more passing options inside. If you show them wide, it opens up the chance that they're playing on their stronger foot, and it makes it a little easier for them to do create something dangerous. This really comes down to: "can my team defend crosses if they happen?" If you can, showing them wide isn't a big deal. But if they're really poor in the air, you might want to consider showing them inside, and perhaps playing with a wider defensive setting, too. 

Here's an Example!

 

So in this screenshot, you can see how I've applied the opposition instructions to Leicester. I've added "hard tackling" to two players who did not have it on by default, which are the AMC and the DL who are both very low in bravery.  Notice that the wingers, Iheanacho + Moi Gomez are shown to their outside, and the full backs are shown to the inside. All 4 of those guys are being tightly marked, too.

So that just about covers it. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I hope this helps some people defend more effectively!

Edited April 4, 2022 by bababooey

[Robson 07]

Another very good thread. I've now found two of those on the same day.  Some deeper thinking about the game + sound logic.  Definitely ideas to be tried out, thank you very much for sharing. 

[bababooey]

5 hours ago, Robson 07 said:

Another very good thread. I've now found two of those on the same day.  Some deeper thinking about the game + sound logic.  Definitely ideas to be tried out, thank you very much for sharing. 

Thanks for your kind words!

[Aoyao]

thank you very much for sharing. 

 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

That's an interesting concept. I would love to see ingame screenshots, how it works there.

[palmamiguel92]

Thanks my man, just adapted this with my 3-4-3 and we are waaaaaay better defending now

Edited April 10, 2022 by palmamiguel92

[bababooey]

On 10/04/2022 at 00:24, palmamiguel92 said:

Thanks my man, just adapted this with my 3-4-3 and we are waaaaaay better defending now

That's awesome! I'm really glad to hear it.  Let me know how things go in the future with it.