Nuno Espírito Santo Tactical Analysis (or anyone else who becomes fav)

[Camboselecta]

I actually read that.haha. Great post although al most pointless. Haha. Do one for Anceloti?

 

[HuddersfieldToffee]

I actually read that.haha. Great post although al most pointless. Haha. Do one for Anceloti?

Don't think he's coming mate tbh

 

[Camboselecta]

Don't think he's coming mate tbh

Shame I heard he was quality and loved a “project”. Seems like he’d be a great fit. : (

 

[billyblue80]

I don't get the hate for Nuno compared to Potter. Nuno has actually achieved more.

 

[Kever10]

What does an NES Everton look like?

Before looking at a whole XI, it's important to note that literally the only thing I've stressed so far about the way Nuno plays is despite his time at Wolves, where he was incredibly consistent with elements of his formation (he would oscillate between 3-5-2 and 3-4-3, with the occasional 3-5-1-1 with a player playing in behind Raul Jimenez, usually a speedly player like Adama Traore or Pedro Neto but always played a back three), it's easy to see the kind of players that Nuno would like in our side and also what kind of players he's utilised before.

If we begin from the back, it's hard to see him replacing Jordan Pickford as Number 1 and it's incredibly unlikely he'll be moved on but it's likely NES will find a back-up goalkeeper to add to the squad. At the back, there are interesting options whether you want to look at a back-three or back-four: Mason Holgate, Jarrad Branthwaite and Ben Godfrey are all accomplished ball-player defenders (Branthwaite is slightly significantly less experienced however) and Keane and Mine, the other two centre-backs in the side, represent good aerial defence and solid defensive organisation in the middle of the pitch. Godfrey has recently been played at left-back in Gareth Southgate's England team and Holgate can play on the right, so both offer mobility and physicality in the defence, which is useful for an aggressive approach to ball-recoveries (which Nuno likes).

Digne is a certain starter, however, in a three and four man defence, and his crossing ability will mean he is sure to be a winner if NES is appointed. On the right, question marks about Seamus Coleman's ongoing ability to play at the highest level will be concerning, but links to Denzel Dumfries, Max Aarons from Norwich and Zeki Celik from Lille (fresh from winning the Ligue 1 title) show that Marcel Brands is considering the area a high priority for rejuvenation this year. If not, Jonjoe Kenny is an adequate replacement and better than his recent spell at Celtic suggests. The personnel as they stand hint that Nuno might have to consider a back-five as his starting defensive base.

In Midfield, it's clear that Nuno rates Andre Gomes, but his mobility has declined since his injury, and he may want to replicate the role of Joao Moutihno or Ruben Neves in a deeper position, hitting balls over the top and hitting diagonals to the onrushing wing-backs. In terms of links, it's hard to get past Marcel Brands who indicated he wanted to make a move for Ryan Gravenberch, with the Ajax midfield to set out his stall at the European Championships with Holland this summer, he would offer height and extreme craft in passing to the midfield of the side.

It's hard to see what Nuno wouldn't love about Allan, and given his predisposition for intelligent defensive midfielders, it's easy to make the case for him and for Jean-Phillipe Gbamin, who are both known for their ball recoveries and defensive positioning, to make a claim to the role fulfilled in his Wolves team currently by Leo Dendoncker, as an energetic forward-pressing midfield in a midfield two or to play as a calming defensive midfielder at the base of a midfield three and also easy to see a case for Tom Davies, whose energy will be admired by NES.

It's harder to see a role, however, for Gylfi Sigurdsson, as Nuno prefers his playmakers to have more energy than the languid Icelander, despite his excellent dead-ball ability and goal-threat. Especially should Gravenberch be signed, who offers similar passing ability but with greater height, it's unlikely there is a role for Gylfi unless he adapts to playing deeper in the midfield, to possibly replicate Dani Parejo's role for Nuno's Valencia side, however that role can equally be done by the lung-busting Abdoulaye Doucouré.

Up front, it's hard to see past a front two of Richarlison and DCL, pending both of them staying at Goodison Park, but more difficult to see roles for many of the bit-part attackers of 2021. Nuno likes to have pace in his side and it remains to be seen whether Richarlison will play through the middle or off the dual-threat speedy and tall DCL in a narrow front three, and much depends on the signings. The club have been linked with Adama Traore, who can fill in at RWB and RW, and Robert Skov, who can similarly back-up at a number of positions besides striker, so it might be something to look out for in our signings: replacing the rigidity of the players signed under Carlo to the fluidity of the signings of NES. Equally, Moise Kean (should he remain) might offer a good option up front and allow a bit more control and physicality against two man back-lines.

If I was to pick a before and after transfer window Everton line-up under NES, however, I would pick suggest something like these selections;

Now
View attachment 129996View attachment 129997View attachment 129998
Maybe with a good transfer window
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Conclusion

Nuno is an excellent man-manager and creates coherent, well-drilled sides. His football can be exception, and can be exhilarating to watch, especially on the counter attack and with the high-press - but this has to suit the game plan and tactics needed to get the result. Appointing NES would be a good move in the face of succeeding Carlo, as he is rigid and regimented and good at building team spirit, which will be vital in the coming months, especially with a severed pre-season. Expect boring early on, possibly for some time but a solid style of play that is committed to intensity.

TL;DR: He's ite.

If anyone else becomes the front runner, I'm happy to do something similar for Mr Gallardo, Mr Howe, Mr Galtier, Mr Potter etc etc. Hope this is of use to some people.

Great thread and a fascinating insight into his career and his mentality. Thanks.

Particularly interested in his use of Gomes. He has shown in glimpses that he clearly has quality (his 1st game back away to Arsenal, he came in and looked a class above anything we had seen in a while) but he definitely strikes me as a player who relies heavily on confidence, both in his position and in/from his manager. Ancelotti seemed to be fairly contradictory in his approach to giving players confidence. Some of his backhanded compliments about Davies in particular seemed very odd. Almost antagonistic at times.

Maybe with the right man in charge, we could still see more from a few of the players we have.

 

[HuddersfieldToffee]

What would a Galtier Everton side look like?

Career Overview

Lets knock another name out of the running by me spending an hour writing about him. Christophe Galtier is a fun one. Galtier has been linked recently after guide Lille to the Ligue 1 title ahead of PSG. Up until this year, Galtier was linked with another club moreso than Lille, St Etienne. He managed there for 8 years before leaving the club, but he has graced these shores before, as Alain Perrin's assistant in his time at Portsmouth. Don't look up the win percentage, it isn't pretty.

He followed Perrin to St Etienne before taking the job himself in 2009 with the club in serious danger of relegation. He guided ASSE to a 17th place in Ligue 1 before coaching St Etienne to seven consecutive top 10 finishes in the League, four of those ending in a European Place and winning the 2013 Coupe de la Ligue, the club's first trophy in 32 years. In 361 games in charge of the club, he led Les Verts to a 148 wins. He left the club at the expiration of his contract with the club in 2017 after missing out on European Football.

From here he moved to Lille, and his work at the club has been nothing short of extraordinary. Picking up from current Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa, he encountered a club in turmoil, with high profile clashes between the club's top players, the coach and the Sporting Director, Lille found themselves in the relegation zone and once again, Galtier was brought in to stop the rot. Les Douges picked up two points from a possible 24 between February and April of that year, but managed to rally to three wins late on to secure their status in the division.

Luis Campos, the Sporting Director was forced to counter the FFP demands on the wage bill, and was forced to replace a raft of promising stars, including highly rated Brighton midfield Yves Bissouma, however replacements, Rafael Leao, Jonathan Bamba and Jose Fonte (the latter on a free transfer), settled well into the team.

Galtier's work to mesh the side into a coherent unit. He did so extremely well, leading the side to a 2nd place finish in his first full season at the club. This relied on the combination on the wings of Nicolas Pepe and Jonathan Bamba, who chipped in with 22 and 13 goals respectively. After his side was broken apart again in the transfer market, with Nicolas Pépé, Thiago Mendes, Leão and Youssouf Koné all leaving in the summer after the runner-up finish, the side regressed to a 4th place finish in his second season before storming to win the whole thing in 2020/21. Just two days after sealing his first, and Lille's 10th title, he resigned in something that can only be regarded as an extreme mic drop.

 

[HuddersfieldToffee]

Tactics

While there is plenty to read about how Galtier topped the table with Lille this year and his work with the club, there is surprisingly little about his time at St Etienne, where he spent the longest time and still remains the longest serving coach. His long spell with the club were marked by consistency in some respects, but naturally variation based upon the players that he had at his disposal, including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before his Dortmund and Arsenal days.

Galtier's sides are compact, organised and well drilled and it was this aspect, not a fluent attack, that made him famous at St Etienne. At ASSE, he nearly always used a back four in either a 4-4-1-1, a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1/4-4-2. Earlier on, he used the 4-4-1-1 shape pretty consistently, but deviated towards a clearer 4-3-3 in defence in his final season at Les Verts. Spielverlagerung described them (sic, translated) as;

"really tight and compact on the defensive... In the six position, Perrin [the defensive midfield] did a very careful job, moved intelligently, covered a lot of space and gave his team an enormous security... operating in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

At Lille, he began using a 4-2-3-1, but has moved recently to a 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2 shape that has allow Burak Yilmaz and pacey and intelligent front man Jonathan David to form a combination up top.

 

[HuddersfieldToffee]

Attack

Galtier has not, and is not known as a coach from the 'press and possess' school of coaching. His sides are not possession sides (they never featured in the highest position during his time at St Etienne, and Lille managed an average of 52.6% this year) he utilised attacks down the flanks and long-shot opportunities often, his sides were able to generate large numbers of open play shots through high numbers of players inside the box and the use of inside forwards to accompany both 2 striker and 1 striker systems, with Max Gradel (hitting 17 in Ligue 1 in 2014/15), and Aubameyang of course, in particular benefitting from his instruction to adopt a narrow game, as they often attacked with 3 or 4 driving into the penalty box and attacking with David, Ikone, Yilmaz and Bamba often this season for Lille doing a similar thing.

Narrowness in the attacking players, therefore, is the key component of his attacking approach, the two-man midfield splits and drops to play the half-back role between the centre-backs, either Andre or Sourmare (or Renato Sanches) can fulfil this role, and it allows the full-backs to advance higher up to allow the two wingers to cut inside and play in central areas.

When they are deep in the opposition half, they play with a 3-1-6 formation often, which can leave them vulnerable to the counter-attack, which can also work in possession as a 3-1-4-2 while working through the thirds, as this post from runningtheshow notes.

Lille were great to watch in possession. Their overall structure in build-up was a 3-1-4-2 but the spaces and positions could be filled by whoever was closest, as I will detail later. Mostly, Lille rotated as in the image below. Firstly, André would drop out of central midfield to become a third centre-back, leaving Soumaré as a single pivot. Secondly, the two wingers, Sanches and Ikoné would move into central areas, becoming two advanced central midfielders. Thirdly, those movements allowed for Lille’s full-backs to push very high and provide maximum width.

The use of this attacking midfield and striker 'box' in the centre of the park is the key to the Galtier approach to attacking play. Galtier wants confident dribblers and languid attacking midfielders (such as Auba, Gradel and the Lille duo, Ikone and Bamba) getting onto the ball between the lines and at back fours in a narrow fashion with four players through the centre, either creating space out wide for crosses, or finding a through ball through the defence. This approach is a reminiscent of Diego Simeone, who looks for dominance in attack through the central thirds with narrow wingers, and even reminds me of his hybrid 4-4-2/3-1-4-2 system that took him to the title in La Liga.

 

[HuddersfieldToffee]

Defence
In defence, his sides use a compact 4-4-2 that attempts to force teams wide, which allow Lille to use their speed to advance them up field in wide areas, before finding overloads of players in the middle of the park. Their compactness can be quite extreme sometimes (hence the Simeone comparison), and their wide players tuck in also to form a block around the middle portion of the pitch.

The front four are also very proactive from the front, looking to force turnovers by committing men into compact areas on the field so they can attack the space on masse, often supported by one of the central midfielders and both strikers dropping in to block passing lanes.

 

[HuddersfieldToffee]

Starting XI

While this is dictated by the squad he had a Lille, it does read consistently with his time in St Etienne. Narrowness from inside-forwards, compactness in defence and a predisposition towards pace in attack are all hallmarks of his sides - so where do we, lonely sailors on the road to mediocrity in need of a captain to save us, fit in? Well, it's going to be a challenge for the 54-year-old, because there isn't a whole lot of that there at the moment.

At the back, once again it is likely that Jordan Pickford will be number 1, although his sweeping isn't his best attribute he is a mobile goalkeeper and more than good enough to fulfil the role set by Mike Maignan, Lille shotstopper. A back-up would still have to be signed however. Since he has always played a back four, it would be safe to assume he'd do so again, so expect Coleman (or a replacement full-back mentioned in my previous post) and Digne to be included as part of that.

Galtier likes his side to be solid defensively, and much of that comes from the defensive duo of Jose Fonte and Sven Botman, but given his desire to funnel play down the wings in defence, the ability to attack crosses that come into the box remains a prerequisite. Sven Botman remains a decent ball-playing defender (as does Fonte) and has better mobility allowing him to play a more aggressive role in CB which Galtier seems to like, so while it's likely that Yerry Mina and Michael Keane would be preferred in the heart of defence as the best players in the team from an aerial perspective, don't be surprised to see Ben Godfrey appear at CB with his ability to carry the ball out.

In central-midfield, Galtier has the perfect half-back in Allan, who excels at ball recoveries and interceptions, while remaining calm in his passing and his distribution. His partner is slightly more complicated, being required to progress the ball into the narrow front four or wide for crosses into them, a recall for Tom Davies could be on the card. A must is stamina and an engine, however, being expected to assist the press and cover laterally as well as vertically in defensive efforts all over the field as well. More likely to be (if fit) Gbamin or Doucoure in his preferred starting XI.

In the front four, pace is a must in wide areas and in one of the central striking slots and... we don't have any. That's not strictly true - Richarlison is a speedster as is DCL, but the need for pace and direct threat in wide areas will probably mean Richarlison will revert to a wide berth. While Galtier could look to a 4-2-3-1, if he wanted to repeat his Lille tricks, then he could use Moise Kean (if sticking around) up front with DCL.

If he wanted to go with a number 10, then unfortunately it could mean more game time for Gylfi Sigurdsson, but when fit, it's unthinkable that James Rodriguez (if staying) wouldn't be considered and he could be used out wide (Galtier used languid playmaker Renato Sanches in that position for Lille numerous times), and that final wing position with this squad (without additions) is a tough one, given the lack of depth of pace in the team, but Alex Iwobi, Bernard or even Antony Gordon could see playing time. So here are my predictions;

 

[KaiserEFC]

New Everton manager tactics:

1. Pass the ball at least 9 times across the back.
2. Consider attempting a forward ball to the midfield.
   
   
3. Lose ball/midfielder must turn 180° backwards
4. Pass ball back to defence should possession have been retained
5. Repeat For 90 minutes

The golden rule is that the opposition must have 11 men behind the ball at ALL times when Everton are in possession of the football

 

[Tilling]

Sweet Mother of God.

He’s not coming bud.

I take my hat off to anyone who reads through that considering he isn't coming.

Il be very honest mate that's an impressive post and I'm sure very detailed, but i haven't read it and more importantly I'm very confident he aint coming.

Wouldn’t even read it if he got the job

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Keep up the good work @HuddersfieldToffee

 

[Thomasc]

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Keep up the good work @HuddersfieldToffee

Still not reading it, NEA about NES

 

[hallamblue]

I don't get the hate for Nuno compared to Potter. Nuno has actually achieved more.

Potter has potential and is tactically flexible. Nuno is a safety first manager who will never win a trophy.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

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Keep up the good work @HuddersfieldToffee

We have a man with an upside down head for a manager. It’s a disaster