Knowing Pep Guardiola's level of footballing intelligence, we thoroughly trust his judgement. However, within the commentary surrounding what Atletico did on the day to achieve a result, as an undoubtedly all-out defensive approach, the 5-5-0 has become overstated - almost as a metric for evaluating Atletico's solidity. In actuality, the 5-5-0 rarely ever took centre stage.
Following its popular use for Vicente del Bosque's Spain at Euro 2012, the role of the false nine has continued to evolve in the modern era of the Premier League, accompanied by a shift in mannerisms, behaviors, and positional patterns of strikers on a football pitch. Pep Guardiola's Manchester City and Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool have been two of the dominating forces in world football since the mid-2010s, and both have operated throughout that time without a recognized out-and-out goal-scoring striker. For any possession-based team attempting to emulate Klopp and Guardiola, deploying a false nine presents a unique and innovative way of breaking the opposition down, and reaching new levels of performance. Some tactical experts have suggested that in the future we may see a formation without a striker at all, but truthfully, we may already be there.
The footballing universe is littered with terminology that only exists to us in our realm, and our game, and our sport. It can therefore be difficult for inexperienced onlookers or even just the average fan, to understand what we mean we discuss different footballing concepts and terms. So today, I take a look at the differences between positional play, positional rotation and positional interchange.
Manchester City are running away with the 2021-22 Premier League title. Thomas Tuchel looked resigned to the same belief in his post-match interview, with the Blues having one of their worst games since the German took over. Manchester City were utterly dominant from start to finish, allowing the Blues just 7 touches in the Sky Blue penalty area - Chelsea's lowest in seven years. So with that, here is our tactical analysis of how Guardiola's City claimed such a dominant victory over Thomas Tuchel's team.
If there is one team in the Premier League who are not in need of new players, it's Manchester City. Already with many of the world's best at their disposal, Guardiola has free range to rotate his squad as he pleases. But one Premier League star certainly stands out as being a perfect fit for the Citizens in the future, and one who could easily be their next Riyad Mahrez type. That man would be Brazilian wing wizard Raphinha, who's starred for Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds since joining in October 2020. While a move for Raphinha wouldn't be necessary to fix any gaping hole in their team, it would be a shrewd piece of business to improve their squad in the long-run.
2021 was the most successful year in the six year history of TheMastermindSite.com. Over the course of the year, we doubled our number of views, visitors, social media followers and email subscribers from where we left off in 2020. Our most popular feature and the aspect of our website that has gained the attention from pro club managers, former and current professional players, and writers from The Athletic, has been our tactical analyses all year long. So with that, here are the ten most popular analyses of the year, all written by Rhys Desmond in 2021.
While star players may make the headlines, managers are the ones pulling the strings and dictating how the game is played. Over the years, the Premier League has seen countless shifts in the trends of managerial tactics, though there is one man who proved himself a world-leading shot-caller over the span of three decades: Sir Alex Ferguson.
The start of the 2021-22 Premier League season hasn't been perfect for Manchester City, but they are still playing fantastic football, en route to putting up a mighty title challenge for another season. Throughout the start of the 2021-22 season, Pep Guardiola has continued to innovate his Manchester City team, deploying new tactics never seen before during his five year spell at the club. Here is a brand new Pep Guardiola - Manchester City - Tactical Analysis, for the 2021-22 season.
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