Blac and Nents silly match reports

[Nentsia]

The Wheels of the Bus go Round and Round



So I was experimenting around a bit with my tactics, and in particular my 4-4-2 that even the Blacaria fears. I wasn't keeping our games in mind though, this was more oriented towards dealing with CPU opponents. Drawing inspiration from both Jose Mourinho and Diego Simeone, the previous credited as the inventor of ''Parking the Bus'' and the latter credited with having made the 4-4-2 a Championsleague-winning formula when everyone declared it a thing of the past, I picked Chelsea to work out some ideas and see how it works in practice. Against Arsenal. I love to play 4-4-2 with Chelsea. It has all the right players for it.

The line-up was as follows:

GK: Courtois
RB: Ivanovic
CD: Zouma (quickly replaced with Terry due to an injury)
CD: Cahill
LB: Azpilicueta
RM: Willian
CM: Mikel
CM: Matic
LM: Hazard
SC: Diego Costa
SC: Falcao

Parking a Bus

Arsenal was in the usual 4-2-3-1 formation, with all those pesky fast players of theirs and Giroud as a lone striker with Ozil behind him. ''Parking the Bus'' was ironically a derogatory term used by Jose Mourinho to describe the playing style of his rivals, when they opted to defend a lead. But since then, it was used by commentators and critics to describe the style of Mourinho's Chelsea. The term was derogatory in the sense that it implies a very cynical and simplistic type of football: putting all your players literally in front of the goal to make it physically almost impossible to score. It sounds so simple, and so effective, that it almost reeks of cheating. There is some truth to it, but its a little more complicated than that: otherwise everyone could do it and smaller teams wouldn't lose to big teams anymore as long as they keep 11 players on the goalline.

Yes, everyone can do it, but it takes time and effort to drill the team in such way that it deploys an ~effective~ bus. Parking the Bus is all about positioning and movement. And it depends on the opponent how the Bus needs to be positioned in order to be effective. Especially in FM, a wrongly parked bus will lead to a bloodbath.

Show ContentMy anti-Arsenal Bus:

Now look at this beautiful bus here. The backline of four have a simple job: sweep anything that comes into the penalty-box. In front of them lies my second trench, another line of four. The idea of having two lines of four players as an ideal defensive positioning was born in Italy, invented by Arrigo Sacchi when he headed AC Milan. One of his players (and the most succesful manager of all time), Carlo Ancelotti, once commented that the 4-4-2 is the best defensive shape. When Sacchi's Milan dominated the Serie A, it did so with the fewest goals against of all teams. His successor, Fabio Capello, continued to turn Milan into one of the most solid teams in Europe and always implemented a 4-4-2 wherever he worked. Many Serie A teams copied Milan.

One of the players in the Serie A during those years, the 1990's, was Diego Simeone. When he became manager of Atletico Madrid, a mediocre team, he resurrected the 4-4-2 from the dead and led the Atleti to win the Spanish Liga and even the Championsleague. Simeone later explained he had drawn his inspiration from his years in Italy. Marcello Lippi also used the 4-4-2 to win the 2006 World Cup with Italy, and Giovanni Trapattoni, one of Italy's most succesful managers, also switched to a 4-4-2 in the later years of his career.

The double lines enable for deep defending, making up for individual mistakes. At the same time, the simple shape enables it to compress and become very compact, minimizing the spaces between the players and making it ''as solid as stone'', as one manager once said after playing against Simeone. Shots on goal are almost always blocked, crosses into the box are relatively easily cleared by the four-man backline and its almost impossible to dribble or pass through the defence as the spaces are to small and the number of defenders too big.

In the situation above, Ramsey finds himself basically cut off from passing options as he faces 8 defenders right in front of him. He has two possibilities: back to Bellerin, or a cross aiming for Alexis. He goes for the cross but its easily intercepted by the defenders.

Show ContentZone of Death:

In this situation, I want to show the Zone of Death TAM TAM TAM... Because the team is positioned so compact, the space between my central midfielders and central defenders becomes a small box, and any opposition player caught inside it becomes practically unavailable for passes and is cut from supply. Compare the space between my central box with that of Arsenal, which is leaving a vast open grassland that is larger than the Steppes of Central Asia. Two of my strikers can easily roam in that area and still be at a fair distance from any immediate opponents.

Also notice the positioning of Özil here. His position is attacking midfielder, and he is supposed to stand close to Giroud and ahead of Arsenal's central midfielders. But Giroud drops deeper in order to stay out of the Death Zone and avoid isolation. As a result, Özil drops deeper as well, turning him into a de-facto third central midfielder. My compactness drives Arsenal away from the crucial central areas of the pitch, and forces them to adopt something of a wide 4-3-3.

Show ContentArsenal adapts:

Here is another situation where my compact defence forces Arsenal players to adapt and seek space elsewhere on the pitch. Özil is having the ball again, and again he is forced to drop deep as there is no space in the central zone. With Özil playing practically as a central midfielder, he becomes much less of a threat. As Alexis Sanchez pushes higher up, and Arsenal's left full-back is covering the space that opens up on that flank, Arsenal practically positioned itself as a situational 3-5-2. Özil will try to reach Alexis Sanchez who is entering the penalty-box, but Sanchez is being marked by Ivanovic. Even if Ivanovic lets him slip, John Terry is close-by to help out while Cahill continues to guard Giroud. Azpilicueta meanwhile, is keeping a safe distance from Walcott so that if Özil tries a through ball there, Azpilicueta will always be quicker to reach the ball than Walcott.

Show ContentDriving the Bus:

My own attacking game relied almost entirely on transitioning, which is a fancy term to say you just rush the ball forward at the opportune moment when Arsenal has not many players back to help out defending. Chelsea has rapid wingers like Hazard and Willian which I let run up and down the flank. Falcao is the main central striker, while Diego Costa roams around him and has the task to link Falcao with the rest of the team. And Costa's secondary task is to annoy Arsenal's players.

When not counter-attacking however, my team positioned itself like this when in posession. The four-man backline remains intact, limiting the risk of Arsenal's counter-attacks as my game is prone to losing posession quickly. It also enables my wingers to take more risk and push higher up and play as wide attackers. My two central midfielders remain fairly in position to maintain control of the central areas. Again, notice the enormous space between Arsenal's central defenders and central midfielders.

The advantage of this attacking 4-2-4 positioning was that Arsenal's wingers remained fairly high up the pitch, not feeling the need to defend as my full-backs showed no attacking intent. But it left Arsenal's full-backs 1on1 against my wingers, as their central defenders were 1on1 with my strikers. Any individual error in this situation, can lead to a goal. In the first half, Willian dribbled past his marker twice, crossed, and Falcao beat his marker to it and scored twice. Arsenal didn't score until the 76th minute from a rebound.