kiss the crest
Player Valuation: £35m
All these lovely pictures with great tactics on, just think when fat Sam gets the job his picture will be HOOOOOOOOOOOOF
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Paulo Fonseca
- Thread starter Bungle
- Start date
- Status
What big man....
wikofootball
Player Valuation: £6m
Welcome Paulo to efc..
OnlyBlueWillDo
Player Valuation: £35m
Stick this in the silva thread....
OnlyBlueWillDo
Player Valuation: £35m
Coming soon to an Anfield dugout near you as the 4th goes in...
GwladysBlue
Player Valuation: £70m
We wouldn’t have gone back in for Fat Sam if we wanted this fella.
Don’t get your hopes up, lads.
Don’t get your hopes up, lads.
tommye
Player Valuation: £100m
No. Just no. Stop it.
All well and good, but could we consider Big Sams tried and trusted tactics?Avoiding the trap
As important as it is to force the opposition to play into wide areas, it’s just as important for Shakhtar to avoid playing the ball out wide to the full backs too early in the build-up stage in attack. Full backs are most dangerous when they are positioned in advanced positions without the ball. It’s crucial to advance the ball through the center and through half-spaces while the full backs provide a threat out wide. You play centrally to eventually cut out wide, then to cut back in again in front of goal. If the full backs get the ball too early, there’s no real threat and your possession can then dictated by the opposition.
One way to avoid this, as Shakhtar illustrate, is to circulate the ball back to the center as soon as possible. A quick adjustment to the opposition’s adjustment can catch them while they’re vulnerable have too many players committed to the flank at once. Below, when Srna receives the ball just above the halfway line, three opposition players can push him against the touchline.
1: Srna passes back to center back to avoid press. 2: Stepanenko recovers ball. 3: Stepanenko finds Bernard in advanced position.
Once Srna distributes the ball back to the center back, they’re in prime position to break through the lines in just three passes. Stepanenko drops back to receive the ball from the center back and Kovalenko drifts into the open half-space. A triangle is formed between Stepanenko, Kovalenko, and Bernard.
As Stepanenko receives the ball, Kovalenko moves towards the ball and Bernard moves away from it, higher up the pitch. Kovalenko is the decoy man–he draws a player away from Bernard, leaving the vertical passing lane open. Note Srna is able to run in space on the flank when he doesn’t have the ball. He’s free to receive a pass just outside of the box as four players attack.
Another way to avoid an opposition’s pressing trap on the flank is through movement on-the-ball (dribbling) by the full back. Only a full back with the rare combination of vision, precise technical ability, and street smarts (experience) can pull this off. As more teams seek to manipulate space on the flanks when they defend, the full back could evolve into a more technically adept player comfortable playing in the half-spaces instead of exclusively out wide. The use of inverted full backs/wing backs can also be an effective way to combat these kind of wide pressing traps. If the full back is able to successfully dribble inside, this creates a numerical advantage in the half-space and center of the pitch. When combined with off-the-ball movement by nearby players, you see the creation of passing triangles and numerous hopeful options conducive to ball advancement.
When Srna cuts inside, Fred is the nearest passing option. The second passing option, Bernard, is moving farther away from the ball. Again, we see Shakhtar use a decoy man (Fred) for a first pass who then becomes the target of the second pass.
The opposing player in the half-space is drawn toward Fred and Srna simultaneously, opening just enough space for Fred to slide into for the return pass from Bernard. This highlights the effectiveness of the decoy as well as how effective inside movements with full backs can be. When they work, they work.
Below is another example of Srna dribbiling to beat the pressing trap, this time with the addition of numerous passing triangles and decoys wrapped up into one.
When Srna moves inside, Shakhtar have a 5 v 3 advantage. Srna has a number of options on the ball. He can play the safe ball to Stepanenko, or can immediately go for the jugular and advance the ball quickly by passing diagonally to Bernard or vertically to Marlos. If the pass and movement from Marlos are clever enough, he could even try a direct ball to Taison.
In the end, Stepanenko and Marlos both serve as decoy men, with the first pass in the attempted attacking sequence going to Bernard. Unfortunately for Shakhtar in this instance, Bernard misplays the first touch and the attack comes to naught. But you see the possibilities that can come when all the principles of Fonseca’s build-up play mesh together at once.
Conclusion
What Paulo Fonseca has achieved at Shakhtar in year one of tenure is no small feat despite being well out of the mainstream in European football. Shakhtar’s continental status is obviously relatively minute in comparison to their domestic status; for example, a mid-table side in England has greater value and prestige than the perennial top club in Ukraine due to the market gargantuan that is the Premier League. In recent years, they’ve become almost something of a feeder club for Big Four clubs (England, Spain, Germany, Italy) as the exodus of remarkable talent (Henrikh Mkhitaryian, Douglas Costa, Willian, and Fernandinho) to bigger clubs in bigger leagues has become routine. Despite the obvious negatives of such a reality, this situation also lends credibility to the Shakhtar name and tells you that good things always seem to emerge from the club. This of course bodes well for the future of Fonseca.
He’s under contract for one more season, and if Shakhtar manage to impress in the Champions League this fall–less in terms of results but more in terms of style, his résumé might get the boost it needs. I can think of a handful of clubs where he’d be a fit should the door pop open. A handful of clubs in dire need of help–not as dire as being in the middle of a warzone, no. Dire tactically, maybe–needing an injection of excitement. Needing ideas, needing style. Maybe where expectations are tempered, but where hope, where imagination, runs high. Maybe he’ll end up somewhere bigger. I won’t make any guesses. I won’t speculate. I’m confident, though, that he’ll succeed. If he doesn’t, at least he might help produce something we can all enjoy–and hopefully, something we’ll all remember.
Style. Not results, but style. Not the what, but the how. That’s where his ideas have made their impression. That’s where all ideas thrive–in style. With style. Shakhtar Donetsk, who can’t play at their home stadium due to the continuing War in Donbass, create a style on the pitch that not many teams in Europe can duplicate. There’s a contradiction in that. If ideas don’t provide the antidote to war, maybe the antidote is style. Maybe the true antidote to war is to ban football so we wouldn’t all be so ignorant of war. What it is. Why and how it perpetuates. But why take away this joy? This contagion? The ignorance of football to the outside world–hidden from the chaos of war–is the most beautiful ignorance there is.
Football isn’t complicated. Not like war–its endless stupidity, its absurdity. No, football is simple: It all revolves around a ball. That’s it. You keep it, you use it, you take it away. We make it all sound so important–I guess maybe it isn’t. Now that I think of it, maybe it makes even less sense than war. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t beautiful.
NOW
lollollol
andym78
Player Valuation: £30m
The amount of space between the cb's there it's actually us isn't it?
Is The Big Lad DCL on Rooney's shoulders?
Papa Shango
Player Valuation: £70m
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