This has been a long time coming, I apologise. I originally planned to show the tactics that won me the league comfortably with Manchester United. No, no, I know a baby monkey could do the same but what really caught my eye was the goalscoring of Antonio Valencia (about 20 league goals in 28 appearances) thanks to a lot of assymetry within the team. To go rambling on about assymetry again though would bore you lot to hell, so if you want to hear about that, click here.

Upon moving to Dinamo in my career game, as I'm sure you're all aware (you should be!) the club was in a period of super dominance domestically. I took this as a chance to try out a few ideas and lessons learnt from the world's best clubs- namely Chelsea and Barcelona as well as the new look Manchester United.


Before setting off to create a dream team with silky football I had to make logical decisions regarding a formation. My best player, by a long long way was attacking midfielder Paulo. He HAD to be the centre of the side, he HAD to be the focus of every run, every pass, every attack. Everything each player did had to be to give Paulo the ball in the best position possible. The false nine has been popularised in the last few years by Lionel Messi, even though the real innovator behind it was Sindelar in the 30s. The Messi of old was often deployed as a lone striker pulling deep or wide to cause havoc in the brains of defenders, opening up gaps for other players to burst into, taking the ball in mid sprint, darting through the heart of the confuddled defence. I don't think I'd seen anyone better suited to that 'darting' role than Paulo, ever. It's obvious logic to give good players space, and you either give them space by putting them on the wing, or putting them deeper than where they'll be roaming into.

The darting role is usually described as a 'false ten'. As opposed to a false nine, the false ten sits in the channels or in deep pockets of space. The number ten is traditionally a playmaker, a creator for others who just roams around behind the strikers finding space. It is easy for defensive midfielders to mark such a player if they just move from channel to channel, as however intelligent their movement, it is rarely penetrative in that darting style.

False tens need space, space that false nines can give them. The two roles play together like salt and pepper, perfectly complementary to one another. To start with I tried to use two false-nines which worked like a charm for Paulo but when we lost him, we lacked options up front and there was no-one running behind the already deep opposition defences. And then I found the perfect solution, the Advanced Forward, a role which maintains the wide roaming nature of a false nine but with a bit more bite and dangerous running behind enemy lines. Alongside that, it would allow Paulo to use his creative instincts more, by far more devastating than his finishing, albeit the finishing that earned him 30 goals in 45 games last season.

Further back, a box to box midfielder is paired with an advanced playmaker (support) in what is possibly the best midfield marriage on the game in my eyes. The blend of mobility and creativity, bite and elegance is brilliant to watch, and has been the basis for the best duos in football history. In more recent years, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes displayed the fluidity between such a partnership as the box to box man can contribute to attacks in a recycling role while the playmaker roams around the area picking out the killer passes, creating that ideal 5-5 split between attack and defence.

Such an attacking midfield needs a foil, and this is where I drew inspiration from Mourinho's Chelsea. That team had no shortage of attacking talent and little Claude Makelele allowed them to do so. It's a fairly basic concept to have one player who does little in the attacking phase, I won't go into that.

The defence is just as basic. Two centre-backs on the defend duty are trusted to make their own decisions as to when to close down and cover. I have three or four solid centre-backs who have no shortage of intelligence so I find it best not to bog them down with instructions. They're all quick, strong and composed. Their uncomplicated role allows them to forge a rock solid defensive triangle with the anchorman, and with the likelihood of us facing a three-man strikeforce or a lone striker with ridiculously good attributes next to zero, the full-backs are allowed to attack the gaps on the undermanned wings. The anchorman is clever enough to drop into the space just in front of the centre-backs when we're attacking so the full-backs need not worry about covering in the case of a counter attack. More passing options, more creators and more players to create space for attacks are fine by me.

Find attached highlights of a 6-0 win against Varazdin. Watch the fullbacks movement, they're pretty much wingers for most of the game, and the amount of times Paulo threads through to the strikers. The highlights are only on Key so it doesn't take an age to upload, but I'll post the .pkm as well.




Comment on this article in our Forums
Back to Football Manager Guide Index