A Sacchi-Inspired Flat 4-4-2

[SeattleFan]

thats awesome thats what i was looking for great thanks very much

[coach vahid]

hi everybody,

I would like to know if someone find to reproduce the sacchi's way.. The hardest thing for me is not when the team have the ball but without.

How reproduce the sacchi's partial pressing. I find this article.

“The pressing tactics used, were it always to regain possession of the ball. Sacchi would use methods of ‘partial pressing’ where players would concentrate more on jockeying rather than winning possession. In other situations, he wold instruct his team to carry out ‘total pressing’ where regaining the ball became the priority and on other occasions he would instruct the players to utilise ‘fake pressing’ where the team made pressing movements but of a lower intensity designed to allow the players to recuperate. “Pressing is not about running and it’s not about working hard, it’s about controlling space” he said. “Pressing was always collective, I wanted all eleven players in an active position, effecting and influencing the opposition when we did not have the ball.”

How keep the compact and the unit of the team like in this article

“Sacchi’s team were compact, moved as a unit and were well drilled. He ensured that the distance between defence and forwards was never more than 25 meters, essentially with the compactness and arcs in the two banks of four, a natural pressing team shape occurred. “In the defensive phase, all players had four reference points; the ball, the space, the opponent and team-mates. Every movement had to be a function of those four reference points. Each player had to decide which of the four will determine his movement.” He added, “The key was the short team. I used to tell my players if we played with the distance of 25 metres from last defender to forward, given our ability nobody would beat us.” The aggressive offside trap meant it was hard for teams to exploit space behind and three compact units in defence meant playing through the team was extremely difficult. “This allowed us not to spend too much energy, to get to the ball first and not to get too tired.”

https://markfc713.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/football-tactics-arrigo-saachis-4-4-2/

this is where i find the article.

thanks

[Rashidi]

hi everybody,

I would like to know if someone find to reproduce the sacchi's way.. The hardest thing for me is not when the team have the ball but without.

How reproduce the sacchi's partial pressing. I find this article.

“The pressing tactics used, were it always to regain possession of the ball. Sacchi would use methods of ‘partial pressing’ where players would concentrate more on jockeying rather than winning possession. In other situations, he wold instruct his team to carry out ‘total pressing’ where regaining the ball became the priority and on other occasions he would instruct the players to utilise ‘fake pressing’ where the team made pressing movements but of a lower intensity designed to allow the players to recuperate. “Pressing is not about running and it’s not about working hard, it’s about controlling space” he said. “Pressing was always collective, I wanted all eleven players in an active position, effecting and influencing the opposition when we did not have the ball.”

How keep the compact and the unit of the team like in this article

“Sacchi’s team were compact, moved as a unit and were well drilled. He ensured that the distance between defence and forwards was never more than 25 meters, essentially with the compactness and arcs in the two banks of four, a natural pressing team shape occurred. “In the defensive phase, all players had four reference points; the ball, the space, the opponent and team-mates. Every movement had to be a function of those four reference points. Each player had to decide which of the four will determine his movement.” He added, “The key was the short team. I used to tell my players if we played with the distance of 25 metres from last defender to forward, given our ability nobody would beat us.” The aggressive offside trap meant it was hard for teams to exploit space behind and three compact units in defence meant playing through the team was extremely difficult. “This allowed us not to spend too much energy, to get to the ball first and not to get too tired.”

https://markfc713.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/football-tactics-arrigo-saachis-4-4-2/

this is where i find the article.

thanks

I agree the hardest thing about replicating Saachi's systems was his whole pressing style, under some circumstances it was 1v1, 2v1 or 3v1. There was a time and place for it. Its really hard to do it in FM, and its something we are always looking to get SI to implement, via a shout. That article is coming from a book nearly word for word by Luchessi I think who interviewed him to get a description of the 442.

The gap between front and back almost necessitate a pushed up defensive line, furthermore the way pressing happens to me at least gets done more effectively with a narrow 442. And the offside trap is an identity. Most of it is doable its the pressing that gets me stumped, its certainly a system I have marvelled at, and it was also the basis on which Pep enhanced Cryuffs system for. Pep took a lot of influences from Saachi, esp. the pressing system.

[Jambo98]

I think the "sliding" defence, and the offside trap are 2 additional parts which are hard to recreate. The later because modern football has a different rule than we did in the early 90s.

The other difficult part with the pressing was Sacchi using different types of pressing - Full press, "fake press" (Which is impossible to recreate) then stand off (which you can create by just taking the TI off for a few mins). It was interesting trying, but i think the ME limitations mean its not likely to be a full recreation.

As rashidi says, many modern coaches have drawn from Sacchi. A modern pioneer

[THOG]

hi everybody,

I would like to know if someone find to reproduce the sacchi's way.. The hardest thing for me is not when the team have the ball but without.

How reproduce the sacchi's partial pressing. I find this article.

“The pressing tactics used, were it always to regain possession of the ball. Sacchi would use methods of ‘partial pressing’ where players would concentrate more on jockeying rather than winning possession. In other situations, he wold instruct his team to carry out ‘total pressing’ where regaining the ball became the priority and on other occasions he would instruct the players to utilise ‘fake pressing’ where the team made pressing movements but of a lower intensity designed to allow the players to recuperate. “Pressing is not about running and it’s not about working hard, it’s about controlling space” he said. “Pressing was always collective, I wanted all eleven players in an active position, effecting and influencing the opposition when we did not have the ball.”

How keep the compact and the unit of the team like in this article

“Sacchi’s team were compact, moved as a unit and were well drilled. He ensured that the distance between defence and forwards was never more than 25 meters, essentially with the compactness and arcs in the two banks of four, a natural pressing team shape occurred. “In the defensive phase, all players had four reference points; the ball, the space, the opponent and team-mates. Every movement had to be a function of those four reference points. Each player had to decide which of the four will determine his movement.” He added, “The key was the short team. I used to tell my players if we played with the distance of 25 metres from last defender to forward, given our ability nobody would beat us.” The aggressive offside trap meant it was hard for teams to exploit space behind and three compact units in defence meant playing through the team was extremely difficult. “This allowed us not to spend too much energy, to get to the ball first and not to get too tired.”

https://markfc713.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/football-tactics-arrigo-saachis-4-4-2/

this is where i find the article.

thanks

I should preface this by saying that getting compactness in the attacking half isn't easy in the ME without making a lot of attacking compromises, but you can approximate the ideas.

First of all, there are two different ideas that have been referred to as "fake pressing" or "broken pressing." The first is where you have a high line compressing space but low intensity pressure. This is like having a containment defence high up the pitch, and it's useful when an opponent is trying to work the ball out of the back with defenders who aren't really comfortable on the ball. It's also dependent on having a good offside trap since the low intensity pressure means you're holding a high line but defenders will have more opportunities to pick out a direct pass, though if the opposition has very slow attackers, you don't necessarily need the offside trap. In FM, you get this by using a high line with "Close Down Much Less." It usually won't be "Sacchian" since the defence won't reliably get as laterally compact as you would want it be, but this is something that will hopefully be improved in future versions. Still, you can apply the same principles in FM and get similar benefits.

A second concept involves high intensity pressure from the front line and wide players combined with a deeper line. This is basically the reverse of the first, but it serves a similar function. Here, you're trying to pressure nervous defenders trying to work the ball out of the back, but you don't actually press. Instead, the defenders and holding mids drop back. This leaves space exposed behind the pressuring attackers, but you're (a) better protected against the direct ball and (b) preventing the opposition from controlling possession inside their own third. The risk here is that if the ball penetrates the first wave of pressure, the holding mids have a lot of space to protect, so you need to make sure they're well equipped to deal with any skillful midfielders picking up the ball. You would simulate this by using "Close Down Much More" PIs for your forwards, AMs and MLR.

EDIT: For partial pressing, the closest approximation would be to use a pressing approach (high line, high closing down) combined with "Ease Off Tackles" PIs for the more advanced players. This method is very prevalent today since it allows you to risk less fouls (which gives the opposition an opportunity to waste time and reorganise) and just let opposition players dig their own grave by overplaying themselves into isolation.

[smp20]

Just came across this wonderful thread

My Sacchi Tactic from FM13 was the best I've ever created and I'd like to give it a shot on this version.

I've started up a save as Sacchi himself, unemployed, and I'm going to see where I end up. I will be starting with a more or less exact copy of what I did on FM13

[shaunwwfc]

Just came across this wonderful thread

My Sacchi Tactic from FM13 was the best I've ever created and I'd like to give it a shot on this version.

I've started up a save as Sacchi himself, unemployed, and I'm going to see where I end up. I will be starting with a more or less exact copy of what I did on FM13

Brilliant to see you back.

Re-create that and it would be magic.

[thenewdon]

I will second that Shauny.

[smp20]

Cheers guys. Would be great if I could but getting a singular tactic that was effective as that one will be pretty impossible - probably one of a kind.

I've got something working, but its not as consistent as I'd like it to be.

[shaunwwfc]

Cheers guys. Would be great if I could but getting a singular tactic that was effective as that one will be pretty impossible - probably one of a kind.

I've got something working, but its not as consistent as I'd like it to be.

Need a tester? Give us a shout.

[smp20]

Need a tester? Give us a shout.

Cheers, if I create anything worthwhile testing I will post it up.