hjperdeath

Makes me miss Kalou.

We need to make our counters count . If we fail to do that , then we'll have problems .

Exactly my point. Thanks again buddy.

*bumping until the game*

Diagrams I make to help myself write reports . Was analyzing Bayern so to make it easier I always stick them up on my window .

That was long ago. I've been back in Qatar for a week now . Haha this is nothing . If I put in more of an effort I could spring up a 10k article on Bayern . It's much easier cause the videos and statistics are online . When I did scouting for the I league and now for the Qatar stars league, I need to attend games and take down everything myself . For that I get paid . But honestly it's never about the money. My parents are well off, a 16 year old like me doesn't need money . But I do get paid if put in a lot of effort , this one was smaller than small you could say.

That's how people usually uh , analyze games ? Read my report and you'll understand .

Read Bayern's scouting report here - http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/16712-dissecting-pep-guardiolas-bayern-munich/

Dennis Wise is on twitter now - https://twitter.com/11denniswise

Ah yeah . I just spoke about what they try to do , not about how they are failing to do so . One of these days , you'll find me outside your place .

submitted !

Munich 2012, demands a replay. A match made in heaven as Chelsea look towards having a chance at grabbing their first silver-ware under Jose Mourinho while Bayern Munich seek revenge over their loss last time around. While Chelsea have gone on to re-enstate Jose Mourinho, Bayern have appointed Pep Guardiola, after a largely successful year under Jupp Heynckes. Since his appointment, Guardiola has revamped the Bayern philosophy, giving it a Spanish touch. The 4-1-4-1 is what the players position themselves to. To clear things up, one must first and fore-most know that it is not the 4-3-3. In a 4-3-3, there is usually a false 9 upfront and two fake or not fake wingers beside him. In Bayern’s 4-1-4-1 though, the two wingers play on the same level as that of the midfielders, which makes it much easier to keep possession in the middle, and slowly build your attacks intelligently. The philosophy is to keep the ball, have lightning fast counter-attacks, high pressing while at the same time being responsible at the back and avoid creating holes. Let’s have a look at Bayern’s squad and how Guardiola’s philosophy revolves around it. At the back two solid center-backs, Boateng and Dante who play quite a decent line. Offside trap isn’t necessarily the first thing in their mind, but if a possibility, then they do exploit it. We have Lahm and Alaba as full-backs. Peculiarity of them is that they both can play as defensive midfielders. A very rare attribute for a full-back, unless you count our own Essien and Bosingwa *cough* . They both push forward, and have the ability to link up with the wingers. The two wingers on the other hand, Robben and Ribery have an extremely high work-rate. They push forward, cut inside at times, but are also willing to track-back and defend. In the middle, we have a defensive midfielder. Schweinsteiger looks set to shake of the mild ankle sprain, and Javi Martinez is reportedly back. This is by far the most vital part of this philosophy. The man in front of the center-backs and behind the 4 midfielders is one of the two connectors, which we shall see later. Moving on , the two midfielders in front of the holding or defensive midfielder are two players who can play flexible and versatile roles. Up front, the striker, Pizarro or Mandzukic. Looking in-depth into their roles, let’s move onto another diagram. Let’s first look at the rectangle behind the defensive midfielder. This is the area where the player is most likely to drop into, to connect the center-backs or goalkeeper to the midfield in front of him. He forms the first ‘connection’. Schweinsteiger is one of the best in the world today, to play such a role. He’ll cover when the full-backs are pushing forward, so that counter-attacks can be prevented. Apart from that, he need’s to make sure he is always open. Though Chelsea have just started using triangles, Guardiola has been using them from the start. The defensive midfielder need’s to make sure that he is always open for the full-backs and plays forward passes rather than taking the ball back or side-ways Here we can give a good pat on the back for our double pivot. A double pivot can have it’s hands on both attack and defense. They don’t have to be too concerned about roaming out of position, because they can assure themselves of the fact that they are being covered well. However in a single pivot, it’s tough. Your role is restricted, and you always have to put others before yourself and have really smart movement. Then we have the second connector, that is the one that connects central midfield to the front-line. There have been variety of combinations in the four games Bayern have played. They are Shaqiri-Kroos, Gotze-Thiago, Mueller-Kroos and Gotze-Kroos. Seeing that Thiago is injured, Kroos is 110% going to start. The reason shall be explained later on. The other midfielder can be either Shaqiri, Mueller or Gotze. Whoever is to start will be entrusted with the responsibility to jump into the final third, or join alongside the striker. He will have to play as an attacking midfielder, a second striker or as a partnering striker. Moving on to the flanks. This is another important feature of Bayern’s new philosophy. The wingers unlike in Jupp’s era where they were positioned high on the pitch, are playing much deeper and almost on the same level as that of two central midfielders. Bertrand was last time used to nullify the threat of Lahm and Robben. There’s a high chance he could be used again, IF we didn’t have Schurrle. There I made my first prediction. I might have just sparked 10 debates, but it is the truth. Like Schurrle disrupted Evra and Welbeck , he’ll have to disrupt Lahm, and Robben. The reason the wingers are so deep is so that they are much closer to the central midfielders and to the full-backs. They need to be close to the CM’s so that they can combine with them and slowly build-up each attack into the final third. It’s much more intelligent and slower than just rushing in, with intelligent movement and creating havoc. They also need to be close to the full-backs because this philosophy relies on unity. You attack as a unit, you defend as a unit. When the opposition has the ball, you press high and track back to defend for your partner. Now having a look at transitions - When they need to move from defense to attack , the full-backs push up really high. This is where unit play comes in. They push up to make sure that the total distance between them and the wingers remain the exact same. Now we can also explain why Kroos will be chosen. Kroos (the one encircled in red) despite being a pure attacking midfielder, does have the tendency to drop back and hold the midfield along with Schweinsteiger in a double pivot. This however doesn’t mean that he’ll completely reject the role of pushing forward. This is why intelligent players are required, and Guardiola’s extremely lucky. The second central midfielder (encircled in blue) always pushes forward to take up the #10 area. Once again, not exactly be the #10, but stay around that area. Gotze and Shaqiri are more likely to either stay here, or drift towards the flanks. Mueller however, pushes up and plays either as a second striker or as the lone forward himself due to Mandzukic’s excellent ability of dragging defenders to the flanks. The transition from attack to defense however, shows much more unity. The wingers are back to defend, the central midfielder joins the holding or defensive midfielder and the full-backs close up with the center-backs. However the second central midfielder (encircled in red) remains upfront. For simple reasons that, he facilitates or is the medium which the rest of the players use to initiate counter-attacks. With very fast wingers such as Robben and Ribery, it isn’t really hard for them. The best part about this, is that its ideal for a strategy that involves high pressing. While pressing high there is the negative side of leaving holes to be exploited, but with having what looks like two defensive banks of four, you always have someone covering for you. Flexibility is another key attribute of the 4-1-4-1. Here are the diagrams - 4-2-4 4-1-2-3 or the holding 4-3-3 Click here to view the article

Almost as true as , "Don't believe everything you read on the internet." - Abraham Lincoln.

Nope there are 5 sheets , one Bayern's aggregate sheet, Chelsea's aggregate sheet, one showing their offensive transition, one showing their defensive transition and one showing their positional depth. then 4 sheets of Bayern's team sheet, and about 4 pages of their statistics. but obviously I know you wouldn't understand...

Halfway done . It's 1:00 AM here . Tired as fuck. I'll hit the sack and try getting up by 8 and finishing it off .

Don't we do that always ?

more like my girlfriend's away.

Nice to see that while I was away working, you guys derailed the topic beautifully. If anyone's interested though -

I'll be doing the Bayern report either by tonight or tomorrow early morning. So mod's do keep an eye out to publish it as early as possible so people can see.

alright mate .

personal opinion then buddy. it's cool.

After telling that it's Mourinho's favorite , I barely think so. And on the stretching tactic. Ronaldo plays on the wings, Schurrle played up front. While playing on the wings he cuts inside. if its Higuain or Benzema , they shift towards the right to avoid an overload. Ozil takes up the left, and Di Maria moves into the #10 area with full-backs pushing up in both sides. That's barely stretching. Mourinho has not once used the idea of having his forwards or in this case a winger drag away defenders to allow others to penetrate. Their tactics are built around, good movement, fast counter-attacks and perfect role-switching. There is barely an stretching of opposition involved in their play.

I have been for 5 years now. 16 years old as of this date. Done part-time scouting for various low league clubs. Don't say something you don't know about. That is Mourinho's favorite? WOW. So done. Definitely. People always think they know more than they actually do.

And in my opinion, I've been analyzing for a much longer time.not just English, but multiple leagues at the same time. You're wrong. You've said your piece, I've said mine. fine then, lets leave it at that.

hmm, that was 2009. Lukaku's much faster. Having followed him all the way from Anderlecht to having watched more than half of WBA's game, anyone would clearly say Lukaku's faster.