Wednesday 14 August 2013

The Guide To 4-2-2-2 | Manuel Pellegrini's Philosophy Revealed

Manuel Pellegrini's Villarreal




Tactics


Cani & Cazorla Effect

The Spanish duo served a very important purpose in this masterpiece. Instead of operating as orthodox wide-men, they were used as 'interiores', and drifts inside towards the centre of midfield. This,in turn, meant that the space they vacated on the wing could be exploited by the full backs, Capdevila and Javi Venta. This created a six man attack, six man defence phase.


In this still image, the two midfielders have drifted inside, which causes the midfield 4 of Real Sociedad to tighten up. This creates space for right back, Javi Venta, to move into.


Borja plays the ball to Santi and with a first time pass he releases the full back, who has a lot of space on his flank.

Here is a diagram made by Tim Hill at timhi.wordpress.com which highlights the situation if one of the two interiores moves out wide :


The Senna & Bruno Effect

The two deep lying midfielders Bruno and Euro 2008 winner, Marco Senna, provided the Yellow Submarine with a solid platform to build attacks from. They rarely moved forward and covered the space vacated by the onrushing full backs which added much needed stability to such an attacking formation.


This compact central defence system provides the opposition with a tough barrier to break through to score. They only conceded 40 goals in the 2007-08 campaign, less than Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

NEXT UP : THE GUIDE TO 3-5-2 | THE JUVENTUS MODEL