what we try to do always is to analyze what are the behaviors what are the strengths and from that build the best shape the best positioning in the pitch uh according to our principles in order to attack [Music] them I am Marti Fuentes and this is the coach's voice today I will be talking about attacking principles on how to beat a mid Block it's important in our way of playing because we want to be a dominant team a team that tries to play attacking football and we Face a lot of teams that that are not
easy to beat in this mid block so we need to have the right Dynamics in that moment of the [Music] game first of all I think that tactics is about the players and in that sense I try to adapt always to the to the skills of the players that I have in my team and second perhaps the most important thing in football in my opinion is the time time Giver give us um yeah space to play give us the quality to execute at high level so that's why I always look for finding the right positioning
uh in the pitch for my players and that can can depend on how the opponent will set their structure and not only their structure but their behaviors so uh it's not the same to play for instance here it's a it's a mid block setting a 4 five1 but it can change a lot we have seen over the last years many times Liverpool for instance has been a team that pressing in that way was starting their press with the Wingers jumping into the center hes which that requires some kind of solution to be that kind of
pressure using a lot the thir man using a lot the eights and tens what we call the attacking midfielders to make sure that how we create this superiority but we can face mid blocks where basically their approach can be different uh it may be that the ones starting the pressure is a striker cutting in one side of the pitch and then is the Wingers or even the attacking midfielders the ones trying to to lock the space but said that out of the behaviors of the position we always try to set the team at least that's
my prefer way to set in a 433 where usually the fullbacks could be a little bit more narrow in order to to open a space we really want to stretch the pitch uh both in terms of full width especially with the Wingers and then as well to create this space this time for our players to use a lot uh the striker to pin the back line to make sure that we stretch the pitch in the depth as much as we can that hopefully will allow the attacking midfielders to have more time and more [Music] space
second good principle for us is the ball Tempo so basically the pace on how we move the ball from one side to the pitch to the other one because that's the way to create gaps uh many times what we want to do is to move the ball quick to one side of the pitch to create this Shuffle from the position and now when we are in this situation what we want is to switch the the the game as quick as possible to the other side of the pitch in order to accelerate so uh we attack
with one idea that is to overload one side of the pitch and then accelerate into the other one this is a concept that we call the strong to weak another principle out out of the ball Tempo um is as well very important for us the counter movements so I think that a good way to beat for instance a mid block is to use a lot the second L movements some sometimes when the striker is spinning he needs to be aware that there is situations where he can drop in order to create the jum of the
center house and that creates an opportunity for especially the attacking midfielders but that can create gaps um through through the lines that we need to use another uh aspect that is very important for us at the end usually we want to make sure that the players are in their best situations in the best positions and that's why we want Wingers that are in full width and create a lot of one one situations where we know that they have big possibilities or good probabilities to to beat their Defender but at the same time in order to
create those situations we use what we call the the side rotations the white triangles so the relation between the fullback the attacking midfielder and the Winger in each side of the pitch is very important for us because especially when the ball is on this side of the pitch if this player now is opening his leg and trying to to face the game to other side this is a good trigger for us for these three players to create a rotation that can be both fullback stretching the Winger coming inside and then the attacking Midfield dropping what
is important for us is that one is what we call in the base of the of the play the other one is in the pocket ready to stretch and to make these movements in behind the Defenders and the other one provides the width sometimes this rotation can be just in between the fullback and the midfielder so the Winger stays as I said before because of their skills stays on the full width waiting but that it's always creating a small attraction when this fullback is creating this movement now before they make the switch even though they
have a zonal approach uh on marking it will create half a second one second that for us is very important to be able now to break lines or to create the situation depending on how how they jump and and if they prioritize to close space inside or space outside but this rotation is a good is a good tool for us as well in order to to beat the pressure [Music] most of the of the principles remain the same what it can change is the structure uh for instance if we play against a team that is
a as I said before is attacking with one Striker it might be that we decide to build with only two in the first line perhaps with the help of the keeper so we make sure that we have a good superiority to get this ball Tempo but if for instance they the fan with two it might be that in that case we build up what we call with with three so so we can invert one of the fullbacks and then perhaps it will be a different structure either we play for instance with one number six depending
again on how they want to press or it may be that we drop together with the six one of the midfielders and then we have a situation where either we can play with a false nine so we create a box in the middle still stretching the pitch with the Wingers or that by stretching the Winger uh the fullback the Winger can come a little bit into the pocket and then the striker still spinning here it all depends on the quality of the players it all all depends as well on the skills of those players and
as I said before perhaps in one game uh is better to be wider in the build up with three in other games perhaps is much better to be closer depending on again what is the behavior if we know that the Wingers will like to jump perhaps it's better to be narrow but if the Wingers will be busy with that fullback stretching perhaps then is more interesting to stretch both Center hes in order to make sure that now when these Strikers probably will try to lock there is more time for this guy to take a decision
on the next [Music] step well the first challenge it might be that of course the mid blocks uh has as well some weaknesses but perhaps I will say that the main strength of a main block is the compactness so no matter what is the formation what is the structure that they use a good mid block will be very very compact which means that if if the attraction if finding the third man if the ball Tempo is not good enough that means that the spice is very the space is very tight and then the possibilities for
them to counter are quite High because still uh we want to keep as well that compactness when we have the ball we want to stretch the back line but at the same time when we progress on the pitch what we want is to make sure that the whole team concept that we call the travel together make sure that we are close enough because in case we lose the ball our rest defense is as good as we can which is a very important part of actually attacking mid blocks many of them are teams that that have
good skills on Contour the space is definitely there so for us the fullback opposite fullback on this narrow position is important that once we progress in one side of the pitch starts to take a position in order to create what we call the plus one rule so if this is a picture for instance that we accelerating on the left side we want always to have one extra player in the r defense so if they leave two we would like to have one extra player they leave three we would like to have either the six in
front having a mindset to attack but still having a good position in case we lose the ball so he can help to create this overload [Music] defensively the most important is the the structure and the behaviors of the position so let's say for instance that we Face a mid block that plays with back five which now as well is quite common sometimes one of the challenges of the back five five systems is that they try tend to drop a lot in the Deep block or be very aggressive almost in a men man but those team
that manage to be in a mid block usually they will jump a lot with the wing backs being very aggressive so it can be as well that they can use one of the number 10 jumping into the center house and then they will compensate this by by this big Shuffle there is definitely an opportunity in these moments to just attack this Zone that for us is what we call the golden Zone so attack always the Gap in between the center halves because those Shuffle even with a very athletic and that's happening more and more with
teams that are playing back five they play with very athletic center house players that usually have good capacity to cover bigger spaces but still I do believe that against those systems is always a good opportunity either second lines either with the diagonals of the strikers to attack those spaces and in that in that sense small details like attacking from the blind it or attacking for instance inverted so in a way that this pass as well can happen not only this movement looking always to the sideline but as well looking deep so with hopefully one first
Contact we can just get into the box and attack a little bit like this that's another another way to do it but it's a lot of considerations that it depends a lot as I said for me the tactics are the players so what we try to do always is to analyze what are the behaviors what are the strengths and from that build the best shape the best positioning in the pitch uh according to our principles in order to attack [Music] them I think that this role is very important the striker so if we get good
players that are good at pinning the back line that are good inside the box then is worth to play with them but sometimes I face situations where perhaps we had players that were very good in between the lines so the possibility to create an extra overload here that can affect as well the position of the Wingers usually I like that my Wingers stays full width until the last thir and then they have the capacity to run in behind and attack the space but it might be that depending on the players another way to attack is
to set the position of those Wingers a little bit in between in between the back line in between the center half and the fullback because that allow us to pin back four usually with only two players which create superiorities all around the pitch then the way we attack or we beat the first line once again it might depend if they go with two in a clear 4 for two or they go more men marking with the six and then is the striker who is cutting but in any case we are aware that by doing this
we can stretch a little bit more and create good overloads in the middle sometimes as well as I said before about the wide triangle rotation is a good opportunity we have the right players for the 8 or 10 to drop into these areas we have seen that for many years for instance in Real Madrid with Tony cross with LCA Modric dropping here in what we call the base because they are very good Playmakers so they have the capacity to not only break lines in the first in the first moment but as well to look deep
and this is something that is important in our in our attacking moment because we always say to the players the first pass if we can look deep it's great so if we can do this with one pass as long as the team has the capacity to travel together that's a great pass not all the players have this capacity and those skills so that's why sometimes we've find Solutions like this one to drop one of the attacking midfielders if he's more skilled and breaking lines Real Madrid has been very good over the last years in a
sustained way because they had not only players that were very good to attract the pressure and to be able to break lines once this mid block was starting some trigger but at the same time having players like like Vinnie for instance or Rodrigo or the players like Jud for instance the last season attacking from the second lines that this is definitely something very difficult to to defend another team that has been doing great obviously is is city which which I think they had the capacity to adjust the structure in a very Dynamic and fluid way
from game to game from situation to situation we have seen how lately for instance the ruin is dropping a solution that is dropping on the side in order to create an overload in one side of the pitch there is a mov that is not easy to compensate for the position um I think it's a solution that they already use a lot some years ago and now it's coming back but then again for me football and and tactics is is about the players so what city has been doing over the last season is just to adapt
to the skills of the players they got now definitely they have a very dominant Center forward that can stretch in behind that can pin the back line that can as well be very good at setting and activating second lines so all this I think that shows that the best teams have the flexibility and the and the capacity to adjust the Dynamics not only from game to game but as well uh during the [Music] game we develop a lot over over the last season um one game where definitely we faced a team that was very good
and aggressive on the pressure and they were very clear on the way of pressing was leitz leit was using a lot the three at the top in a very aggressive way usually with the Wingers as well closing the passing lines between the center half and the fullback so for us it was very important how to beat this first line of pressure because we knew that once they could press and regain they were very dangerous because they had they have a lot of quality still today on the team and we knew that they were very dangerous
on this transition so for us to make sure that this moment was was solved in a proper way was very important and basically the way was through the third man that is a concept that is very important in our way of playing but knowing that the Winger the Winger usually like to lock this passing line and the fullbacks actually were bit radi as well to jam him needed so that was a very aggressive way of of pressing we knew that it was very important that in that case our number six our attacking midfielder in both
sides was very ready to coming a little bit from The Blind Side but being ready trust him and then bounce either to the fullback in order to create this situation perhaps but as well sometimes if he was gambling in order to keep the wing on the full width in order to jump one press but um this moment I think that we solve it very well in a game that was solved as well by a small edges but that the team solved in a brilliant way and that gave us the stability over the minutes to achieve
the result that we wanted [Music]
