My preferred lineup and tactics

[Matt10]

Rather than flood the forum with more who to blame topics, I figured to look into what I would do with this team. The reality is, believe it or not, we're stuck with them for the rest of the season, so why not have some "fun" with the tactical side of things. I took some time to determine who are our strongest players, not just from stats, but overall chemistry. Yes, there are probably some choice players, but as a coach you have to look into all the elements of a player relative to their positional strength and weaknesses. I believe each player I've chosen can enfroce positivity in the attack, and those who are good in defense can do so.

Base formation:



►Roles
*The concept with the 3 back is to not bring use wingbacks, but to ensure width to bring in more triangles with the CDMs. If MLM has it, he can pass to Seri, who can then pass back to Nordtveit, or if Odoi has it, he can pass to Chambers and pass to Nordtveit, and so forth. This is the benefit of having a CB who is familiar with playing the CDM role.*

GK Rico - Obvious choice.

LCB LeMarchand - Has shown strength on the ball and defensively in reading the game. Quite mobile, and can use both feet.
CB Nordtveit - Is comfortable being a CDM or CB. Bundesliga experience brings in a lot of isolation for the CB, so mobility is key, which Nordtveit has. Reads the game very well, good size for our CB spot.
RCB Odoi - Mobile, athletic and also reads the game well. Even if he does make a bad play on the ball, he is fast enough to recover. A lot will be asked of the RM, in this case, Babel, so having Odoi to cover will breed some good confidence.

RCDM Chambers - The key with Chambers and Seri is to cover defensively while being the highest point of the triangle to advance the ball. Chambers will get more advanced while Seri steps back. Chambers is not afraid to shoot, and based on our conversion numbers, we need more shooting - he hits the target too.
LCDM Seri - He's been very consistent for us, and has grown into that deep holding playmaker role. He receives the ball better from the left hand side, and especially from LeMarchand as they understand each other well from Nice days.

LM Sess - This set up allows Sess to get up the pitch, where he's dangerous, and enough to drop back, where he's athletic and adequate. With this he gets to again be part of advanced triangles in Schurrle and Cairney. Sess can choose to overlap or tuck in on crosses - where he scored plenty of goals last year.
CAM Cairney - He's the glue that we need in advanced positions. The only way to bridge centrally is going through him. This is a very strong central midfield with Seri, Chambers and Cairney, we have to play to their strengths.
RM Babel - While I love Babel to play up with Mitro, he's too valuable on the sides for us. He maintains possession so we can even get past the halfway lines at times. Sending up square balls to him and Mitro would put too much pressure on getting our players up the field too quickly, and if something goes wrong, it's instantly a turn around in transition where anything can go wrong.

CF Schurrle - Some will disagree with this, but simply fact is that Schurrle is our second leading goalscorer on the team. He also is not the best in defending, so the more he is placed in a proper advanced role, the better for all of us. He also has incredible chemistry with Mitro. Their link-up play is always on point, so there would be no concern here.
CF Mitro - The less we isolate Mitro, the better. He will have so many options to play off of, and know that he can change his strategy from staying central for crosses, or drifting wide to play a quick touch and move into position to feed back more advanced.

Attacking Shape:



►Concept
The concept in our attacking shape is to get width from our CBs, keeping Nordtveit central. Chambers and Seri can move up and pivot if needed, but the key is to get central with Seri and Babel right on the outside of the box if not in it. This allows Chambers to cover, then Odoi go wide to cross if needed. There is flexibility here as well because Babel can switch with Chambers if Odoi needs to drop a pass back so they can cross. We need to get players in advanced positions, but not as early as a counter-attack, we need to get back to possession-based attacks, and this is the best way to ensure we clog the other team when they try to transition.

Defensive Shape:



►Concept

Pressure: High
Width: Narrow
Line Height: Medium

In more defensive positions, we need to ensure we play to the strength of our players, and not ignore their weaknesses. Schurrle and Cairney are not the best defenders, so the further we can keep them up the pitch, the better. We can choose to play off of them to counter or hold up to find key passes. Both of these players can do that. Sess and Babel will be asked to drop back more, but Sess will drop back further, while Odoi goes wider. Nordtveit and LeMarchand will get help from Chambers and Seri, who are playing the box-to-box position.

I like a counter-press mentality, but I'd rather not isolate our players. The good thing is Nordtveit does have experience with that, but again, too much of a risk in the premier league where the opposition is incredibly athletic and fast. I am not wanting us to drop into a shell either, so that is another benefit to Babel and Seri tucked in to play a defensive role, while Chambers drops back centrally in front of the defensive line. With this type of formation and knowing our players, we cannot absorb waves of attacks for 90 minutes a match. So, I choose for a high press throughout the pitch. We have plenty of depth for players to be subbed if needed. 

[PartizanFC]

New signing,Markovic is rw and can give us double speed in attacking options,so i would like you make some strategy with  him instead of Shurlee
Also,its obvious with any modification 3-5-2 formation not working for us,we always concede and if not..we are too slow in attack in this formation

[Matt10]

New signing,Markovic is rw and can give us double speed in attacking options,so i would like you make some strategy with  him instead of Shurlee
Also,its obvious with any modification 3-5-2 formation not working for us,we always concede and if not..we are too slow in attack in this formation

If anything, he can be a sub for Schurrle, then Babel goes central. I'd have to see his crossing ability and overall chemistry with other players first.

There is no "instead" of Schurrle, he is a starter in my book simply because he is the second goal scorer on this team, and for other reasons I stated. People get upset with him because of his defensive duties, well here I've given him none, so win-win.

[nose returns]

Matt
Not sure we have always agreed but love it when someone throws out a proper idea with some thought out imagination

Asuming the new cb works and mawsom is off line for the rest of the season..... i love your idea and to be fair its more adventurous and proably has more chance than what i was thinking about.

I can never give a 100% to anyone so for what it worth i am not a fan of the keeper so would use last seasons but we need not fall out over that.... you can now be the manager if cr goes!

[Asotosyios]

Thanks Matt, very interesting. While Jokanovic was still our manager, I thought we could have tried a more "traditional" 3-5-2 with Sessegnon and Christie as the wing backs and Vietto next to Mitrovic.

Question for you, as you defended (or tried to explain) Ranieri's decision to start with the 3-4-3 yesterday: do you play your 3-5-2 regardless of the opposition?

[Woolly Mammoth]

Have to say that I cannot disagree too much with that selection or system of play, and your reasons for each player. I may have tweaked the odd personnel, but I can see your logic.
Especially as it cannot be any worse than what we have had to witness in so many games.
Therefore, it would be interesting to see and compare alongside CR selection.

[PartizanFC]

my oppinion...any normal tactic cant help right now.we cant play like Cardiff or Burnley,we cant afford even draws becouse we need victories to zero this -7 atleast before 35th matchday...
So,we need to risk...Loosing 0:1 or 0:4 is same...We still didnt suprised any "big names" like Bornmouth did against Chelsea

With this squad,be sure that we  will concede in every game..they try everything but lack of quality in defence is shocking...so dont expect points from clear sheet...We must try to play ..score one more goal then opponent did

We have some quality in attack so we must exploit that to maximum...Put the midfield lines closer to attack,force our wingers to make croses to Mitro ,force Shuirle to shoot from distance like before(last 5 games he didnt even  try it-lost confidence at all)
If we score first- dont stop to press,try to get second with same power becouse sooner or later our defence will make mistake and make sitter to opponents...try to hold ball and pray god that their attackers have bad day or Rico to play his life game

Also i would share minuts on pitch shurlle-sess and babel-markovic becouse its obvious both of them loose stamina and concentration after 50 mins...we dont have other joker ayite,kebano are not answers...maybe vietto can have some small role..

I dont say to use this suicidal tactic against Southempton or Newcastle...but against "big 6" or games that we already lost in minds...we can only gain few crucial points that we didnt expect and that points can...MAYBE...save us

i know its childish...but any serious thinking and tactic was already showed as unusefull.so we only can hope in some miracles

[The Rational Fan]

What about radical change against ManUtd?

                   Fabri
SSess Chambers  Nordtveit RSess
        Anguissa         Seri
                  Cairney
Markovic       Mitro             Babel 

Subs: Rico, Odoi, MLM, Cisse, O'Riley, Schullre, Vietto

Some of the changes like Fabri and Anguissa are not sensible, but sensible will lose 1-3.

[colinwhite]

Good post matt ,but we look very narrow with even less capabillity than usual to put crosses into the box. Given that we also dont have the pace to get in behind im finding it hard to see our attacking threat. For all the flaws in Bryan and Christies game they gave us the threat out wide against brighton in the 2 nd half,with balls played into the opponents box . Odoi and le marchand just dont have those qualities.And as we have seen many times this season ,poor crosses into the opponents box often leads to being  found out on the counter,where our transition to defense is not good enough.

[toshes mate]

Nice graphics, Matt10. Very unsure about the logic of selections, though.  All I can see defensively is that the faster moving players have grid like starting positions to get back to their own goal line.  Doesn't look like a 'team' to me, at all, sadly.

[snarks]

Nice post, although I would swap the positions of Babel and Shurrle, I think Babel is better suited to staying up front alongside Mitro.

Although given Markovitch potential, he could be ideal in that position. Not sure CR will play Sess tho, I think he'll stick with Bryan

[Matt10]

Matt
Not sure we have always agreed but love it when someone throws out a proper idea with some thought out imagination

Asuming the new cb works and mawsom is off line for the rest of the season..... i love your idea and to be fair its more adventurous and proably has more chance than what i was thinking about.

I can never give a 100% to anyone so for what it worth i am not a fan of the keeper so would use last seasons but we need not fall out over that.... you can now be the manager if cr goes!

Thanks, nose. Unfortunately, I'm considering Betts is out for the rest of the season, so Rico gets the nod here. I definitely don't want to be manager, haha.

Thanks Matt, very interesting. While Jokanovic was still our manager, I thought we could have tried a more "traditional" 3-5-2 with Sessegnon and Christie as the wing backs and Vietto next to Mitrovic.

Question for you, as you defended (or tried to explain) Ranieri's decision to start with the 3-4-3 yesterday: do you play your 3-5-2 regardless of the opposition?

Ranieri's focus is width in that 3-4-3, but the problem is that Cairney has to be involved centrally, and rarely stayed that far out to the wide right in our build up. The irony is our best chance was a product of Cairney and Christie glued to the touchline, and somehow Christie kept the ball in, who then sent it back central, circulated all the way to the left to find Bryan for the cross.

I think the 343 vs Palace was the right play, but what needed to change was instructions for Mitro when we were on the right hand side. Palace recognized we are high in crossing, but know that our goals rarely come from the right hand side, so they just let Christie or TFM to try to beat them with a cross. Our one-route attacking this way needed some variety, and it wasn't till very very late that we tried to mix it up.

Have to say that I cannot disagree too much with that selection or system of play, and your reasons for each player. I may have tweaked the odd personnel, but I can see your logic.
Especially as it cannot be any worse than what we have had to witness in so many games.
Therefore, it would be interesting to see and compare alongside CR selection.

Thanks, Wooly - yeah, we have plenty of depth in spots, but my goal was to get proven performers in place, with really the question mark being Nordtveit since we haven't seen him play. I can't reject a player with his size though, which is what we need in that central defense, so that's my only "risk".

my oppinion...any normal tactic cant help right now.we cant play like Cardiff or Burnley,we cant afford even draws becouse we need victories to zero this -7 atleast before 35th matchday...
So,we need to risk...Loosing 0:1 or 0:4 is same...We still didnt suprised any "big names" like Bornmouth did against Chelsea

With this squad,be sure that we  will concede in every game..they try everything but lack of quality in defence is shocking...so dont expect points from clear sheet...We must try to play ..score one more goal then opponent did

We have some quality in attack so we must exploit that to maximum...Put the midfield lines closer to attack,force our wingers to make croses to Mitro ,force Shuirle to shoot from distance like before(last 5 games he didnt even  try it-lost confidence at all)
If we score first- dont stop to press,try to get second with same power becouse sooner or later our defence will make mistake and make sitter to opponents...try to hold ball and pray god that their attackers have bad day or Rico to play his life game

Also i would share minuts on pitch shurlle-sess and babel-markovic becouse its obvious both of them loose stamina and concentration after 50 mins...we dont have other joker ayite,kebano are not answers...maybe vietto can have some small role..

I dont say to use this suicidal tactic against Southempton or Newcastle...but against "big 6" or games that we already lost in minds...we can only gain few crucial points that we didnt expect and that points can...MAYBE...save us

i know its childish...but any serious thinking and tactic was already showed as unusefull.so we only can hope in some miracles

I agree with all of that. It's that time where we cannot sit back for 90 minutes and just keep absorbing these attacks. We need to press and be brave like Slav would say. Our manager needs to put the players who prove that they are up for the task, and empower them by putting them in the position to perform.

What about radical change against ManUtd?

                   Fabri
SSess Chambers  Nordtveit RSess
        Anguissa         Seri
                  Cairney
Markovic       Mitro             Babel 

Subs: Rico, Odoi, MLM, Cisse, O'Riley, Schullre, Vietto

Some of the changes like Fabri and Anguissa are not sensible, but sensible will lose 1-3.

I'm definitely good with this too, but have questions about SSess since we've never seen him play in the premier league, but I understand why we're at that point now. I've only seen Markovic on for Hull City, so not sure what he will be like. I do like what I see, so we'll just see how he could play with this group. A 4-2-1-3 can transition with overlapping fullbacks, ala Slav, but centrally we are asking a lot from Cairney to float between the banks to be the anchor point to get out of midfield. In my set up, he is more advanced, but it is the strength of the 3 central defenders to play off the CDMs, which then is a natural scale to play off either Cairney or Sess or Babel. It reduces the width in attack just slightly, but we will be able to maintain possession in threatening areas.

Good post matt ,but we look very narrow with even less capabillity than usual to put crosses into the box. Given that we also dont have the pace to get in behind im finding it hard to see our attacking threat. For all the flaws in Bryan and Christies game they gave us the threat out wide against brighton in the 2 nd half,with balls played into the opponents box . Odoi and le marchand just dont have those qualities.And as we have seen many times this season ,poor crosses into the opponents box often leads to being  found out on the counter,where our transition to defense is not good enough.

Unfortunately, we are already limiting ourselves with crosses into the box for only Mitro. We need to get numbers up so those deflected headers from the defenders can be picked up. Our chances against Brighton were not only a product of successful crosses to Mitro, they were a product of clogging the top of Brighton's box. Everytime they cleared the ball from a cross, TC, Seri, Chambers or Odoi, were there to pick up the scraps. We didn't have this against Palace, and it was easily exploited.

I like both Bryan and Christie, but am learning that Christie is not doing well under the pressure offensively. He's standing up players defensively well, but is struggling with confidence in crossing. You could see it against Palace, he was wide open to send in a cross, but was caught in two minds and ended up recycling the attack.

In my set up, the role of Odoi and LeMarchand is not only to cross, but they can play more advanced passes to ensure we keep possession. They are not as advanced either so there is no overlapping here, this way we have enough, at least 5 players, that can drop back to absorb the counters. The last time we were truly caught out in a counter was against Arsenal at home, in which our players were completely isolated in a 4-3-3 that was dominated right through the centre of the park. I think a lot of credit has to be given to Ranieri in the fact that his system has prevented our players from being individually exploited on counters or loss of possession. We get back in numbers right away, but sometimes a bit too early, which I imagine is the directive to ensure these type of individual exploits do not occur.

Nice graphics, Matt10. Very unsure about the logic of selections, though.  All I can see defensively is that the faster moving players have grid like starting positions to get back to their own goal line.  Doesn't look like a 'team' to me, at all, sadly.

Not entirely sure what you mean about defensively faster moving players? Or how is it not a team?

If I were to guess, you may mean dropping back in defense and the organization of that shape? A high press is going to naturally widen out the shape, versus currently we drop in a shell, and then react. So we retreat to a certain spot, absorb the attack, then step forward relative to where the ball is. A high press is going to force that instance of an attack to be broken up early, and we use a strength in numbers to regain possession. On "paper" it looks static, but that's why it's a moving sport and the dynamics of the match are going to be used to our advantage defensively.

**********

Thanks everyone for the reply. Like I said, this is just a fun activity for me. There's no reality it could happen, and it's not that far out there, but it's a good distraction from the current theme of doom and gloom - which is completely validated considering how this year has gone.

[Matt10]

Nice post, although I would swap the positions of Babel and Shurrle, I think Babel is better suited to staying up front alongside Mitro.

Although given Markovitch potential, he could be ideal in that position. Not sure CR will play Sess tho, I think he'll stick with Bryan

Yes, but if you do that, it puts way too much pressure on Schurrle to perform defensively. We've already seen that he's solid in attack, and playing off Mitro, but poor in defense. This is why I explained to keep the strengths of the players as the priority, which is why Cairney is also more advanced.

If Markovic is subbed on, or starts, then yes, Babel moves to the CF spot with Mitro. I imagine Markovic's defensive prowess is higher than Schurrle's.

[Bill2]

Whatever line up we go with in our next 4 home games we can't afford to give up the midfield. We have to stop them pinging the ball around and hope the back 5 can pick it up. How many goals have we conceded where the opposition midfield has been able to bring the ball from the midfield and push us back into our box. It also allows the full backs to overlap with no threat.

[filham]

Lets go with the 4-4-2 that worked for 45 minutes against Brighton and put Scott Parker in charge of the team for the next match. Essential we try different fullbacks.

                                                               Betts
                                     
                                      Odoi          Nordtviet         Ream      Le Marchand


                                      Markovic        Cairney           Chambers      Sess

                                                       Berbel           Mitrovic

[Moltobueno]

I'd go for 4-1-4-1:

So our LB and RB won't find themselves near the opponents corner flag while losing the ball in midfield.
Playing Odoi as RB was a disaster last time against Manu.
Chambers to be the link between defense and midfield to break up Manu attack.
Seri likes to drop very deep to ask for the ball, so it leaves Cairney more freedom to play with the ball as he likes. Babel can deliver far better crosses than Christie.
If we can get a cross in, it will be always dangerous as Mitrovic is far better than Lindelöf or Bailly.

                       Rico

Christie     Odoi       MLM         Bryan

                    Chambers

Babel      Cairney      Seri        Sessegnon

                     Mitrovic

[snarks]

Nice post, although I would swap the positions of Babel and Shurrle, I think Babel is better suited to staying up front alongside Mitro.

Although given Markovitch potential, he could be ideal in that position. Not sure CR will play Sess tho, I think he'll stick with Bryan

Yes, but if you do that, it puts way too much pressure on Schurrle to perform defensively. We've already seen that he's solid in attack, and playing off Mitro, but poor in defense. This is why I explained to keep the strengths of the players as the priority, which is why Cairney is also more advanced.

If Markovic is subbed on, or starts, then yes, Babel moves to the CF spot with Mitro. I imagine Markovic's defensive prowess is higher than Schurrle's.

That's what I like different opinions, Babel doesn't set the world alight defensively as Brighton's first showed, I'm not sure either are great at tracking back, but Babel looks better as a front player than Schurrle, who in turn looks better coming from deep.