Sean Dyche • Key principles of the 4-4-2 formation and how he used it at Burnley • Masterclass

So within the 442 within the thinking you've got to win a game of course why was I in my back of my mind what what could we give these players the best to bring the best out themselves so to give you a view of Life at Burnley football club and the main reasons why I often went for a 4-4-2 um sometimes literal got no problem with that you know people talked about it for years sometimes we adapted it as I'll hopefully show you so the basic principle of a 442 and against popular belief you know

the modern era of kind of four three three and now more so in the last couple Seasons the 352 or 343 whichever way you look at it these formations have been there for years I mean uh you know like 50 60 70 years there's there's books out there telling stories of World Cups you know 67 years ago where people were playing a version of a 433 so before we go into the detail this is my opinion on football we're talking about yardages you know to give you an overview before I go into specifics about us

you drop a player in here and that becomes a number 10 but it's literally five yards so you drop a player in here and then adjust that player there and that becomes a big difference and yet literally you're virtually on this anyway it's a matter of yardage some teams obviously Express this considerably differently Man City probably the best components of making this really feel different by making the pitch so expensive so I'll start with it with us not having the ball so we're defending so if you're playing against the 433 which is which is often

uh particularly in the Premier League so all we're saying is can we lock on can we be brave from start points like goal kicks but once the game gets going then we know we're gonna have to drop our Midfield to deal with our Midfield and all it is is one of our Center forwards he's dropping around this play here against the real top sides sometimes this player has to go south side when you're defended particularly as the game moves into this area of the pitch often we're trying to keep this by north side and then

they just pivot across the pitch so sorry to make that clear they're playing now across their back four they open up two seven hours split and they start playing here so Center forward locks on stays north side if they play a fast pass across there he breaks off and he drops back in so it's a very simple situation to start from a 4-4-2 the benefit being in theory it's quite logical for the players to follow you know there's not loads of information that should be quite standard for Center forwards to understand that scenario a Midfield

then as these are working here we're always asking can you be brave and lock on and for him to be brave and like I'm not literally for that kind of in between then this player imagine then the ball's out this side this player has to tuck in and cover him so therefore the the pressure covered that scenario is important for this player and I suggested we all get across and now we're trying to lock on that side of the pitch slight difference remember we're talking defensively slight difference comes if they now got the two and

the one so now they're playing with the number 10 let's say so yeah you're going to exaggerating here so they've got their back four opened up which often happens in the Premier League the sitting holding two Midfield players number 10 wide players going quite expansive and the main number nine you'd call it who's a bit more free to work against the two seven halves let's put it that way so that's slightly different but all we're saying then is so if the ball yet again just to keep it simple is this side we're saying come on

them in betweens here for the first center forward to kind of get that soft press and guide it that way and all we're saying is coming to this in between position so now we're saying we almost want to slightly either in between or actually to this this opposite side midfielder the reason is we're encouraging it now to go to that side so once it goes and if they do find that pass into that he comes out of his slot and we get round or he now works to go and press that side but the fact

is we've kept on that same side and stopped them not easy sorry stop them from getting here getting turned and now playing out this side so whatever way we work the 442 in general Play We want to keep one side we don't really want them keep shifting and shifting and shifting which is difficult because often the Premier League clubs do and they give real depth and they fire the passes quickly around the Horseshoe we want to try and keep them one side and lock them on once we do so let's imagine yeah again I'll keep

it this side how crunched can we make the pitch get over Channel Side always Channel Side get round get round and we leave this side of the pitch that's my risk as a manager now and again it's difficult for the fallbacks because they'll say Cafe you know like if he unloads it quickly how do we get across now the reason for that I talked with the players about the body language so this plan now at any given time this player I'm going to put that deep lyrings it's more familiar in the Premier League this player

now when he opens up his head and he opens up in his body language we call that the quarterback so now he's in that position where he can now fire it so if you see him opening up even in the Premier League with some of the you know amazing players and they can disguise things can't disguise a 67-yard pass you need a certain body of a certain power so what we'd offer then if we can't get the Press on or certainly not in the diagonal passing Lane and he gets time then we're offering can he

start early so on his body language when he finds it can he start early to get out there early give him a chance to get there as quick as possible he sets off he's got to drop him we get across we get across we get a crossover this is where the hard work comes in these are the hard yards as I call it Nick tell Freddie Jones by the way hard yards you know this is the work this is when you Burnley not every game not every home game but when you're playing the real top

side so I'm imagining now I'll put them in you know you're playing top six people who keep the ball well because obviously I'm talking about the defensive side this is the bit that really counts how quickly can you operate to press one side good teams will unload the other side how quickly can you get across how can you can you shut down the other side and yet again compact it leave the opposite side not many some not many can do the diag back the diag back the dag they can't do it three or four times

at the Trot on the Trot so it's this first time is really important to get across and go lock the play down very quickly as they develop let's say they develop the game and now they're working into corners and they're bringing fullbacks in they're bringing their Midfield their higher midfielder in other midfielders arriving in the Box opposite player reminded that we're planning at sort of the top sides then I mentioned the concept four sorry there we go a 4-4 goalie I think those wouldn't change that 442 so once we're in this area here now we've

got to work extra hard because we've got to shut down their clever play and while we're shutting down their clever play making sure that we lock off this V it's really important for us at Burnley particularly wide player fall back come and tag team if they've got the big Diagon now they're working in this really aggressive position to try and create chances we've done well we've got them moving by the time they get here now it's all eyes are alive Red Alert these get across we've got to shut down these players here because these players

often in the Premier League try and combine first center forward might come into this first position to try and get play into them which case our Midfield rust to sink our midfielders certainly has to sink into the front side of the penalty spot usually and that opposite wide man we asked a lot of our wide players they have to drop in as well so then we get this real compact situation inside of the Box usually one of our Center forwards this kind of North Side ideally but sometimes it has to be south side and then

we're leaving just rearrange their players we're leaving one set of forward up the pitch because we still need an out even if we're defending like this really compact we still need an out so that's a kind of scenario start point we lock on they get playing we Shuffle one side we try and stop the diagonal pass and keep them the same side if they do get that pass how quickly can we Shuffle and slide across or really work hard to dominate that and stop them continuing to shift the play then once we get into this

final third how can we lock down and Safeguard the position a maximum opportunity which is that kind of second six yard box they call it many different names but this key scoring Zone and what we do is try and crowd out that key scoring Zone and it takes a lot of effort from the players but football is about effort as well as skill foreign when we've got the ball what are we going to do with it so defensive structure is in place the team should know that we keep the 442 we use the four two

four two wisely because the simple lines of movement and we look during that 442 defensive scenario to use cover space cover distance not always man for man but at some point you have to go lock on man for man of course once the ball's now in our favor and now we've got a chance to play so of course like anyone and again it's some popular belief we wanted to play out quickly if we could we wanted to get it out to our Center for uh Center back sorry quickly or particularly if the opposition were attacking

and it was one end where it over ran to the keeper or something like could we play quickly from the back and we talked a lot which I'm heating down the ears and it Pope down the ears about changing the tempo so we didn't want the opposition to go back and Retreat and sit in their shape so how many ways could we create a different kind of tempo and feel to the game from a start point being the keeper on this occasion could he for example throw quickly usually if they've attacked out to one of

our fullbacks or our y plays for example could he roll quickly and we get playing quickly sometimes could he get to the edge of the box and kick it purely to change the feel of a game because often as everyone will know games look formatted particularly early in a game we were saying to probably can you change the feel of it can you change it in many different ways can you throw quickly can you play quickly we're not against playing out for the back as long as it's done quickly before they can sit in and

reorganize because we think that's harder to break down but equally get to the edge of the box and kick one early throw it early to change the field while it's expansive like this foreign Banks I've got a chance to build we're still saying to the the Midfield players can you come and get the ball we still want them into these Pockets to turn and play forward so that was a key for us playing forwards first if not Timeless backwards but always forward as many times as possible if they lock on then this deep line Midfield

player can only do one of two things he can't can't be cover everything all at once unless you can't say he can then you get across so if he comes across on this side we're saying why can't you land it into the second Senate forward so imagine you're now let's use talk as a as a player an individual player on our side he's got a real good passing range so why shouldn't he go and use it wisely and pass into the front that was one example sometimes we'd get more so at home we'd try and

get our fallbacks in advance our why player slightly more inside get our Center Force to run the center after way as long as possible a lot of teams thought we were going to play forwards anyway so therefore run the play and then the play gets more expansive reminding you of a key thing often we're two versus three so if you're two versus three it's harder for these to operate it's harder for these to lose their Midfield players so therefore once you play here we kind of were hoping to take that play not out the game

but make it awkward so that player now has to turn around the other way facing the other ways not facing the play see what happens here of course if we can land this into chess keep holding the ball then these players are now 2v2 and they can come alive to give you a view of it so we are still looking for these to play now sometimes we could get these in advance these players Wesley was really good at corki as well actually in different ways would come really wide almost into the full back slot the

reason for that is because this midfielder doesn't really want to go out here and if you get your timing right even their wide man has to come back with your fullback allowing this bit of room here so this is your central Midfield player by the way the risk of that is obviously turnover but then you're looking for this player to be more assured with his touch other midfielder comes in to give a bit of balance and this is where it's important the Y player comes into that inside position when you're attacking because the thing is

in the Premier League that we learn and we act to change at times transition kills you in the Premier League so if you're going to open up like this at times even Burnley I mean other teams do it you know because they've got a bit more prowess as a team and a bit more technical quality sometimes so less turnovers but if we're trying to keep the bottom work from this shape you have to be ready for transition so often we'd keep this wire player in this inside position when the ball's on the opposite side now

once we're playing we're asking so I put Wesley back in it's our fullback can we play into the front that's our first door can we play short here if we lend it back can we play to the front if they're playing High which a lot of teams in the Premier League attempt to do if we can play into the first Midfield player can he shape it in behind while they're trying to play high to open up the game the more times we open up the game in different ways the more chances we felt we could

create and the more um more of a different feel we could create against the opposition rather than them just sitting in their shape and just trying to pass through them all the time how many ways can we make it feel different often trying to play into the front got no problem with that at all play into there and sometimes playing to the front come inside come inside lock the game off so we'd sorry that's our fall back out there so we get these from four they'd come inside two Center points in wide men inside Midfield

crunch we'd go lock the game in as best possible if we were playing a longer style of football more so away from home probably than at home So within that did we want to play from a start Point yes did we want to play early and change the feel of a game sometimes by kicking it without a doubt once we are playing everyone's got to want the ball one of the keys is everyone's got to want the ball because if you don't you lose that kind of fluid play and then it becomes really disjointed when

we finish seventh went into Europe still in the 4-4-2 as what people would see recognize Burnley rather there's a 442 but what we did often so there's therefore I'm just using the four three days it's the most likely in the Premier League's not always of course we've got Jeff Hendrick to try and play in this role here and it was from a defensive start point but Jeff had a real good engine he had a good eye for arriving in the Box in my opinion felt he could have got more goals but it was creative in

the way press is creative in the runs he'd make and just almost causing the discomfort for them from even from having the ball in an attacking format it was slightly different for us you know if it weren't as familiar with it worked really well that season amongst other things but dropping Jeff and now I think it's probably half the season we played with that kind of four four one one scenario everyone's still obviously telling us all it's a 442 of course but we were trying to adapt this idea so over the time that I was

at Burnley yes I believed in the 442 as my go-to we did change it many many times and sometimes with success sometimes not so much success but the season we finished seventh often or at least half the season play with Jeff Hendrick coming out of this role here and make no bones about it it was a defensive start point of a position we hadn't been in the Premier League that long then we're still learning we've we got our defensive shape right it'll give us a benefit of attacking better and we did so really well over

that season so we tried to adapt this for varying Seasons we had to change the first season but we stayed up um I think it was we didn't have an away win until third from last game of the season our home form was really strong for a team that you know not that powerful in Premier League well so yeah again away from home that was part of the thinking we had to go in and say right what can we change so we decided particular way from home we dropped Jeff Hendrick into this kind of number

10 but a defensive number 10 as a start point stay in the game stay in it to win it as we say then you're saying it to try and win it especially away from home but we found it was working quite well so we did it at home as well foreign one thing I think that's important is I think to remember is in the early days I'm getting an example of a player and it's a food for thought piece is when when everyone's talking about passing 10 yard football and passing and short passes which the

game is more or less dominated by now or certainly that thought we had Kieran trippier here right back now kieran's a player who could possible any distance with quality seriously any distance he's got every Club in the back so if you've got dunnings here at the time and we didn't stay up that year in the Premier League but you know there wasn't a major investment in all the rest of it building a training around all that but just give you a view because I think it's important to remind people if you've got um Kieran trippy

here who's got every Club in his bag I would be doing him a disservice as a player by saying you can only play 10 yards into Midfield I'd actually taken away from his talent base if you imagine that thinking across the whole of what I my staff tried to achieve and the players tried to achieve it Bernie I'm looking at each Bago how can I give you the best chance of being successful both as an individual and as a team and therefore knock that on as a club and he was a good example of that

because I just found hang on I'm absolutely doing this guy a disservice by saying I only want you to play into Midfield because if we got Danny Enzo come right off the shoulder for fun at that time and he could find it and did do many many times with a direct pass the most penetrative pass in the game is that first pass there and in my lifetime Glen oddly you're going to tell Glenn noddle in my lifetime for those who are going to remember to only play 10 yards I don't think so so just to

give you a little view of it and I think it's fair of me to do so because a lot of the 442 a lot of the design a lot of the defensive design and all these things at Burnley was to to give the players a best chance to operate individually and collectively and I think that was shown not only by the Premier League situation but the players that we bought in for very low money have moved on for fortunes you know and they didn't do that for no reason they did it because their game developed

So within the 442 within the thinking you've got to win a game of course well I was on in my back of my mind what what could we give these players the best to bring the best out themselves so that was part of our format not just getting involved in modern Trends modern thinking because it's hard to resist that by the way because people are bombarding you why don't you do this why don't you do that well part of it is and a big part of it is because I'm looking at my players going how

can I give these the best chance to develop to improve themselves to improve their livelihoods to improve the way they play but to improve their chance being in the Premier League so something that was actually quite logical thank you foreign