For me Roberto de Zerbi is one of the more fascinating coaches to watch at the top level of football. After playing a few seasons struggling to settle on a system for my team I've decided to start my next season focused on attempting to take elements of his style of play and implement them on to my Derby County team.
Although exact replications are (I think) almost impossible to recreate, I'm going to detail a few elements and how I think they could translate.
The first element is the build up shape. Variations are used by de Zerbi but the shape I see most is a fairly simple 2-4 build up , two centre backs on one line and Two central midfielders and two full backs on the next line. What makes it less simple is how deep these six players come. As you can see on the image below the the centre backs are in a fairly standard position for a possession team, but the line of four are deep in line with the edge of the penalty area.
Also on the image below we can see the wider team set up in build up that we will aim for. Further up the Attacking midfielder and centre forward split into ore of a two in the half spaces, with the wide players keeping the width. So the full aim of our build up shape will essentially be a 2-4-4.
So with the above considered, we will line up in what the game calls a 4231 DM AM Wide formation (below).
This is just a starting point and will most likely be subject to changes.
Some player instructions I am considering once I've seen it play out over a few games are the full backs to sit narrower as in de Zerbi's build up the 2-4 is often quite tight together.
I'm a bit undecided on the wide players as they should really be wingers but I think if I have wingers each side they may not provide as much of a box presence as the IW's will, stay wider PI may be an option there but something to keep an eye on.
I'm also thinking the AM may need either roam from position or move into channes (or both) if the AM and CF don't move too well to form a flatter two initially.
I've kept the Team Instructions fairly simple for now. Hoping to build out from defence and also have low crosses to hopefully favour low cut backs over general crossing. De Zerbi also favours a higher pressing system so have set those instructions accordingly.
I am planning to do some updates after a few games, but please treat this as a discussion as I'd be interested if anyone else is attempting this and how they're getting along. There are many more aspects of de Zerbis's play which I may go into once I get this basic initial shape working how I want as this should give a good platform to build on.
Hoping to have an update on this over the next few days. Typical I finally decide to start a thread then have barely any time to actually play! I've managed to get the 2-4-4 build up almost how I want it (wingers still undecided on) Also managing to see a lot of what I've heard De Zerbi calls 'S passing'. Which is basically the ball moving like an S up the field vertically when the press is baited (So kind of CB to DM's to AM to ST/wide)
