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Barcelona’s Tactics, formation and 3 men defense

What is the formation that is being used by most of the teams now a days or even in the worldcup 2010? The answer is without a doubt 4-5-1 [4-3-3/4-2-3-1]. Which shows that teams are now playing with single striker. This brings a new question into mind. When we play 4-4-2 we need two center backs to track both the strikers, why do we need 2 center backs when there is only one striker?

2 Center backs vs 1 striker

When this situation comes, one of the defenders will track the striker and other will be waiting to cover the first defender. The left and right backs will track the opposite teams 2 forwards. Which suggests the one of the Central defenders is always free. Also the second defender can push into midfield or initiate forward runs. Now another question, Why do we need 4 at the back always?

do we need 4 at the back ?

when the teams play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, as we saw above, one of the central defenders is free. So why can’t we manage the defense with 3 men and push one extra men into midfield? This idea is not a new one and in the past many team tried it. Most recent is Mexican team at the world cup. And now Barcelona started improvising this formation.

Barcelona’s Formation [vs Rubin]

Rubin vs Barcelona formations

OK. Here i marked defenders[yellow] Alves[2], Pique[3],Puyol[5], Maxwell[19] and  Midfield[orange] Xavi[6],Mascherano[14],Busquets[16] and Forwards[Pink] Villa[7], Iniesta[8],Pedro[17], as per the UEFA formation diagram.

The actual formation when they played was different. Both the left and right backs pushed forward. Mascherano moved to a position in between Pique and Puyol.

Barcelona's actual tactical formation

Now this is 3-4-3 formation. The forwards are very narrow, both Villa and Pedro likes cut in and attack.. this allows the left back and right backs who already pushed higher up the pitch to drive further up the pitch.

In general, the teams playing against Barcelona tends to sit deep and defend. When Barca has the wide defenders pushing forward and giving them the extra width to attack, that stretches the defense of the opposition. This is very much possible because all the men that Barca uses as wide players [pedro, messi, villa] likes to cut inside and play. This also makes the forward 3 of the Barca very narrow. The extra central defender will cover the space infront of the goal while the other two takes relatively wide positions to cover the space left by the full backs.

Barca played the same formation/tactics against Atletico Madrid. In this match they used Busquets as the extra central defender with Xavi and Iniesta in front of them covering the midfield.

Atletico vs Barcelona formations and Barcelona Tactical formations

Will this works always?

This will work every time the opposite team sits deep or just trying to defend. In case your opponent choose 4-4-2 to play against this 3-4-3 formation [like Atletico Madrid] you are leaving one of the central defenders free at all the time by deploying both strikers higher up the pitch. The best formation will be 4-4-2 with second striker playing behind the main striker or a false nine role. Another thing that can work against 3-4-3 is long diagonal balls to the strikers.

Different version of this approach by MUFC

Manchester United's tactical formation against Everton

Sir Alex used this formation in their game against Everton. He placed O’shea just in front of the central defenders. Both the full back for forwarded in that match. It all worked well for united but they didn’t defend well in the last few minutes of the match when everron took corners, so not much was written about this formation or use of the extra man in the central defense.

Valencia 0-1 Manchester United | Too much respect from both sides but Finishing quality prevails

15mins on pitch, 6 passes, 2 shots on target, 1 goal …thats Chicharito for Manchester United. A good first touch followed by a well taken shot …surely he made Michael Owen will be proud. United had won the match with 1-0 against Valencia on Spanish soil in Champions league group stage.

As expected Sir Alex deployed 4-5-1 formation with Berbatov as lone striker and Carrick, Anderson, Ferdinand and Rafael got the starts. Valencia too fielded 4-5-1 with Soldado as single striker.

Valencia vs Manchester United statring Lineups

Tactics

The best part of the tactics is the visit of Sir Alex to Valencia game against Atlántico Madrid. He fielded the team according to the observations and with the limitations that Rooney, Scholes and Giggs are not available due to injuries. Though the above UEFA starting lineups picture shows United formation as 4-1-2-3 and Valencia as 4-4-1-1, the actual positions are bit different. Since Valencia uses Albelda to pass the ball around from the deep midfield, SAF though it would be nice to stop that flow and he deployed Anderson higher up the pitch to control Albelda. Which means Anderson was handed more of a defensive role. Fletcher and Carrick patrolled the midfield. Here is the actual formations from UEFA web site

Valencia vs Manchester United tactical formations

First-half

In the firsthalf both teams gave more respect to each other. both teams are more happy to see the position and wanted to play on counter attack. The result is a slow paced game, which ended with no shots on target from both the teams at end of first half. Valencia maintained high defensive line and Mathieu tried to get forward more means Nani’s forward runs are restricted. Berbatov who played deep also never found any service from midfield when he stayed up front. You can see SAF showing 6 [six in the box] in the first half, while defending a corner, which he shows how United defended in the first half.

Second-half:

Nothing changed, except Nani trying to play higher up the pitch along with the anderson. As SAF says, some players creating something out of nothing or moment of brilliance. Berbatov did the same, He received a long ball on the left side, got away from the defender and had a shot which is on target but saved by goal keeper at near post easily. This is best action of the match so far from United.

Substitutions:

Valencia made the first substitution by replacing a midfielder with a forward and changing the formation to 4-4-2. This change brought something to their game and started passing the ball more to the wingers. This is the period where you can see, Pablo sending more crosses into the box.

united has to respond to the situation and they did by replacing Anderson with Hernandez. This means united are now playing 4-4-2 . United could have scored immediately when Nani’s cross missed everyone waiting and found Hernandez on the left fat post but he couldn’t reach the ball.

Switching to 4-4-2 brough life into game

Then Berbatov was substituted by Macheda. Many might have expected Owen to come on but since Hernandez a similar player is on the pitch, SAF went for Macheda who can drop deep and defend as well.  The result is immediate, Nani’s run midfield and the pass found Macheda who spotted Hernandez’s run early and passed the ball to him. The first touch of Hernandez is superb and then he finished it with more flair.

In conclusion, a satisfying night for united with win. There are few positives to take also, The return of Ferdinand, Carrick and Anderson. United’s defense surely looked much better than the one that leaked goals for the last 3 weeks. Carrick is at his best but a valuable option to have with Scholes injured. Both the teams didn’t played well really and didn’t created many chances due to lack of creativity from the midfield, might be due to missing the key players but in the end the quality of finishing and clever substitutions won the match for United.

Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Manchester United | Evans, O’shea, Evra, Rooney …

On a day when United can put pressure on Chelsea, they wasted the opportunity to do so. To be honest though they have 66% of the position… still chased the game and are behind bolton twice. Interestingly  managed 13 shots to Bolton’s 15 and committed more fouls than bolton.

BWFC v MUFC lineups

United went with the same side that won against Liverpool with Rooney and Berba upfront with Scholes and Fletcher running midfield. Bolton also played 4-4-2 with Davis and Elmander upfront. Bolton started brightly and they maintained the same pace throughout the game. Game is not very much tactical to write in depth analysis but there are few interesting things about manchester united.

United continued their habit of leaking goals from the defense. For more embracement its again Johnny Evans who was at fault for first goal along with confusing position of Evra in the goal post. Then Nani sent a brilliant strike into goal to level the score. At half-time team talk, SAF told them to send the ball to Nani as much as possible but Nani was not able to send many crosses into the box. But Nani was unsuccessful through out the match to send the crosses into the box except the the one that Owen scored. The second goal which was deflected off Fletcher is not entirely his fault, had Evra or Evans did their job, that cross would never have reached Fletcher. Fletcher’s substation was not surprise since we have a midweek CL match and finally Struggling rooney was subbed. The goal was Owen is simply super and it send a reminder to SAF that, he had an option to turn to, instead of sticking with Rooney.

How many of you had observed and agree with me that, Van Der Sar is poor in this game? After the first 10mins, i started counting how many times pass from VDS finds a united player. All his long passes went to Bolton players…expect one 1 out of 13. Which means for every 8mins, Bolton’s attack came through a goal kick or free kick.

Edwin Van Der Sar ball distribution against Bolton

Observations:

Evra: Everyone is saying Rooney is not in form but the one who is surely struggling from that Worldcup hangover is Evra. He is not at his best in any of the games so fat this season. On the left side, we always get crosses from Evra more than the left winger many times but in the last 2-3 games those are limited to 3 or 4. Match against Bolton, he had 4 attempted crosses and just one is successful.

O’shea: Don’t know why he is still a preffered right-back this season. He is slow and not creative. Not getting into more attacking positions or crosses. in the match against Bolton, he had just 1 unsuccessful cross into the box to his name. We all know, Neville is old and not a good choice now but we have young Rafael waiting for opportunities. He may did a mistake against Bayern Munich that defeated us but he deserves a chance so is his brother. Don’t know when SAF will fix this right back issue.

Johny Evans: I’m sure he has lots of talent otherwise he will not feature in those many games for United. But this season, so far he is struggling. Against Bolton, he didn’t have a tall striker or someone Tevez, still against Davis he struggled. Also we saw Evans giving away a penalty to Torres in the match against Liverpool. Which suggests that, he not dealing properly with strikers who moves more or run around the Penalty box. Evans need to step up to cover this in his defense game, otherwise he may not be wearing that United shirt for long.

Rooney: First time, i though we could have started with any other striker. His choices are wrong and not showing any confidence. He needs to move on and make his on-field scoring count. Now, Owen has sent a signal that he is ready for action… so it would be interesting to see, if SAF opts for Owen in future.