Tactics/Formations thread

[ZeshWong 1]

This is how I would make use of our current squad. Ideally we would already have Stones and Varane at our disposal, they are here to improve the agility and speed of our defense.

The problem with our current squad is more of mentality and morale issue. After a disastrous beginning of the season and having a vulnerable defense most of the time, most seems to lose their appetite to play in a high level.

We were used to be unbeatable, bear the spirit of steel. Now our players seem to embrace the underdog title. None of the elite clubs are consistent this season to be fair, and the issue I see is all are without a dominant defense strength.

In the past years, Chelsea forged that Maginot Line under captain JT, Manchester United under Vidic and Ferdinand, Manchester City under Kompany, Arsenal under Sol Campbell (sorry IMO Liverpool is missing a little to qualify), ACM under Maldini and Nesta, Juve under Cannavaro, Barca under Pique and Puyol. They are the foundation of all these past champions.

Of course they were helped by effective DM like Makelele, Keane, Viera and so on.

Last season, the combination of JT, Cahill, Matic worked well. This season, the partnership is crippled by aging and fatigue.

So my focus would be rebuilding a dominant defense power, featuring the young Stones, Zouma, Varane, Azp. and led by the experienced veteran Cahill. This line should possess enough strength, speed, talent and passion to be the new almighty shield. Once we got a reliable defense, our talented attackers and Fabregas should be able to refocus on winning the game, rather than much distracted like this season.

Costa is our new Drogba/Aguero/Ibrahimovic. Oscar can be groomed to be our Modric/Iniesta. Hazard is our Ronaldo/Bale/Messi. Fabregas is our Xavi. We certainly have enough talent in our attacking force. And then Courtois will be our new Cech/Casillas/Buffon/De Gea for sure.

Under the same formation, if Isco is available in the next transfer window, I will get him to compete with Oscar. It's good to have Lukaku back, problem is he's not gonna sit on the bench for long yet it doesn't make sense to sacrifice Costa for him. So I don't see him coming back to Bridge anytime soon. Kenedy is just a temporary patch on the defense, but he is more of an attacker. We have yet to see Pato in action, however should he be able to recover his best form, he's going to be a killer inside forward. Cuadrado might still be a hidden gem, IMO it's still too early to write him off. And it's always good to have Pogba, but we have to be realistic considering we are not playing in the CL next season.

 

Side note: I am a long time Football Manager player, by no means I am a football professional. This formation is very effective in FM, whether it's going to work in real life is beyond me to discuss.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

I like Oscar more than most in this forum.  However, he can't ever be mentioned alongside Iniesta.  

[d4nth3m4n1985 0]

Let's be realistic Everton have just been half bought out so are on the up Real Madrid are possibly in the top 4 squads on earth why the hell would stones and Verane leave to come to us?

[d4nth3m4n1985 0]

We need a killer of a dm I would say William carvalho or someone with long legs a bit viera like unless it's gonna be someone like makelele with precision positional awareness also I agree with sideshow above Oscar is no where near iniesta quality he's been pretty poor this year last season he was a monster in hassling teams and making em panic and make mistakes I think up to Xmas oscar had the most interceptions in Europe, another thing was Costa last season just used to hoof the ball first time and used to catch the gk out most of the time this season he runs up the left channel and stops at the 18 yard line and steps in slows off and loses possession last year he would just smash it first time dunno what's up

[d4nth3m4n1985 0]

A mate told me abramovich promised him when Jose got dropped he could leave and go back to Madrid if he scores a certain amount of goals and he's pulled he's socks up

[chelseafan26 293]

Oscar in the same sentence as Modric/Iniesta. Oh dear!!!!!!!!! 

[ZeshWong 1]

On 3/14/2016 at 7:08 PM, d4nth3m4n1985 said:

Let's be realistic Everton have just been half bought out so are on the up Real Madrid are possibly in the top 4 squads on earth why the hell would stones and Verane leave to come to us?

We ideally already have them before this season even started, not that we would get them now. And before Zidane came up for the post Varane was actually having limited chances in RM, for certain players this is something unbearable. Why would Higuain left for Napoli, who thinks Napoli was much better than those all long elite clubs then?

[ZeshWong 1]

This entire season is in chaos, probably the only player worth mentioning is Willian and all the youngsters. No offence but IMHO many fans (of all different clubs) these days are lack of patience, a club functions as a group. Once the system is broken, almost no one would be able to perform. And what we are going to see is just performance of frustration on the pitch. But we want immediate changes and effects, so the managers just come and go, not even Jose can help with that. Hazard plays like a cheap 5 million backup at the moment, but if I were a manager I am definitely keeping him, you don't find players of his calibre all the time. In our current squad it is not the problem of their ability but a confidence issue. A new idea in the tactic and to boost the morale is a more viable solution. We can easily throw anyone away, but lets see how Chicharito flourishes when he was sold by Man Utd., plenty of examples. If we were to sack any player, it has to be due to attitude problem. You see once Klopp is able to introduce his mentality into Liverpool, even that squad can do miracle. Maybe Conte would fix this squad, maybe he's the one to groom Oscar. I never said Oscar is Modric/Iniesta, but I did say he could be GROOMED. Reason being he's only 24, he has the time to achieve it still under the right coach. He has the skill and creativity, he's good on the one touch passing which can slice through opponent's defence, but he is pretty inconsistent and he has to do a lot on the defensive work plus so much of a broken squad performance this season. So that deters his progress to be a better player. He is not indispensable though. And these opinions on him more or less comes from the Football Manager's view of point.

[ZeshWong 1]

On 3/14/2016 at 7:19 PM, d4nth3m4n1985 said:

A mate told me abramovich promised him when Jose got dropped he could leave and go back to Madrid if he scores a certain amount of goals and he's pulled he's socks up

This is new to me, I hope it is not true. Costa is a beast, and a player with his temperament, all we have to do is to have a squad that meets his level of competitiveness, and his disciplinary problem would be gone. It's more of a result of frustration, the entire squad is disappointing him. He works hard scoring but we keep conceding at the back.

[manpe 10,855]

Opened thread, looked at the graphics, saw Stones at LB and Ivanovic at RB, dismissed thread. Sorry.

[Tomo 21,681]

That will be the main question, the centre of the park will have three energetic midfielders in the side, so where will that leave the fullbacks and attacking mids in the system?

Azpilicueta - Better going forward than given credit for, but enough for a wingback? I'm not sure, but with the system their will be a need for 5/6 centre half's and its a position I thought Cesar could actually excel in, maybe Antonio will play him there?

Ivanovic - Back up centre back at best hopefully.

Baba - He would be left wing back, don't think there's any room to maenovre with him, if he stays that is.

Hazard -Not defensively strong enough for wingback, but if stay could be the one behind the striker, the two doesn't nessesirly have to be two out and out forwards.

Willian - I would imagine he would be a right wing back, strong enough defensively and in that position their won't be a big demand for goals/assists (which isn't his strongest point despite his impressive tally this term), could be an even bigger making of him than this season has been.

Pedro - He might be the one in trouble, although I think he can come good, I can't see any room for him in this system.

Kenedy - He could be the biggest benefactor to a wingback system, my belief is that as a winger he lacks the close control and sharp decision making to be top bracket, but fullback he could be the real deal if he brushes up on his defending as when you go forward you aren't as closely marked in that position, wingback seems almost perfect for him.

Oscar - Can't see Conte making him more than a squad player.

Then there's the players in loan.

Juan Cuadrado - If he returns would almost certainly be wing back.

Nathan Ake - Could be an interesting player who will give us depth at wing back and CM.

Also to touch up on the centre backs, we will need 5 maybe 6 centre backs if we are going three at the back, assuming Terry is still leaving we will have Cahill, Zouma and Miazga, one if which won't be fit for the start of the season.

Rumours has it that Conte wants to recall Christensen and sign Bonnuci which would make 5, maybe my suggestion above of putting Cesar there to make it 6? Or Ivanovic will be the 6th with Cesar a wing back? Or maybe both with Miazga heading out on loan.

Could be quite an exciting new direction if Conte goes down this route.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

If Chelsea had same ambition as 10 years ago, we would try to make most of Conte arrival. Bring the best players he worked with, players that entirely suit him.

Like Verratti who said Conte is best manager he trained under or Pogba who Conte brought to football world or Vidal who turned world class under Conte and so and so. 

But we will probably settle for mediocre players again, Roman will demand to play tiki taka and buy players for that style, meanwhile Conte will push for hardworkers and then we have the board who will try to bring something in between; but like for sometime now fail at doing so. If Conte has full control and budget, we might get somewhere, otherway the circle will repeat. 

3:5:2 would be insanely bad IMO. Not suitable for PL at all, outdated, we dont have such players and getting such players wont be easy either. Even two strikers, we would need someone like Tevez or Aguero to pair Costa. There is reason why two classic cfs dont play together; Higuain and Benzema at real for example. Long are gone days when you put two RVNs and hoof long balls/cross from side in penalty area and win games.

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

If we play 3-5-2 with the current team.

             Tibo(Bego)
    Azpi-Terry(Cahill)-Zouma(Ivanovic)
Willian(Pedro)-Fabregas-Baba(Kenedy)
         Matic-Mikel(Rlc)
       Costa-Hazard(Traoré)

And that would be insanely, insanely, out of this world, grotesquely bad. That team would get slaugthered.

But. We're not going to play this system. We're going to play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. 4-4-2 it's the system Italy is playing right now.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

I think it's for the millionth time this Italian fella here Blue Fox says that Conte ditched the 3-5-2 (deemed it outdated) but no one seems to listen to him...

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

8 hours ago, Tomo said:

(very interesting post).

Conte had 3 great CBs in Chiellini, Bonucci and Barzagli therefore he was playing with 3 at the back, here he has none.

8 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

But we will probably settle for mediocre players again, Roman will demand to play tiki taka and buy players for that style, meanwhile Conte will push for hardworkers and then we have the board who will try to bring something in between; but like for sometime now fail at doing so. If Conte has full control and budget, we might get somewhere, otherway the circle will repeat. 

 

If he's earning 12m€ a year on top of bringing 10 men football staff, on top of bringing new sporting director it would be insane if he had little to nothing control over transfers and someone would pull the strings before him.

Besides, Roman is pissed. He demands the best. This season is unaccaptable. Be positive. I'm positive. We will bring goodies.

[Jase 43,479]

Oh god. Not another thread about formations! 

To make life easier, I've merged the recent threads about tactics/formations into one and pinned it at the top. So please use this thread to discuss anything related to it!

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Delete

[Tomo 21,681]

On 17/03/2016 at 4:18 AM, petre.ispirescu said:

I think it's for the millionth time this Italian fella here Blue Fox says that Conte ditched the 3-5-2 (deemed it outdated) but no one seems to listen to him...

I heard a couple of rumours that he wanted to try it and bring Andreas and Cuadrado back for that reason, furthermore even if he never once uses it here, what's wrong with discussion it in a hypothetical sense? Transfers that never happen are discussed all the time, why can't the same be done for formations?